Fasken Martineau is Strategic Partner to UBC-SFU for the $25 Million Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and Development

Vancouver (Canada) – Fasken Martineau, a leading international business law and litigation firm, announced today that it is serving as a private sector strategic partner to the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU) in their successful bid to have the new Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and Development headquartered in Vancouver.

On Friday, November 23, 2012 the Honourable Julian Fantino, Minister of International Cooperation, revealed that the partnership of UBC and SFU had been selected to operate the new Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and Development. The Government of Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), will contribute up to $25 million over five years to the Institute’s establishment and initial operating costs.

“We are very proud to have been part of the successful bid and strongly believe that the coalition between UBC and SFU with the support of their strategic partners, including Fasken Martineau, will provide a strong foundation for the Institute,” said Kevin O’Callaghan, co-chair of Fasken Martineau’s CSR Practice Group.

“Vancouver is an excellent choice to house the Institute, given the city’s concentration of mining and extractive expertise and it being renowned as a world centre of excellence in managing natural resource development,” added Will Westeringh, Managing Partner of Fasken Martineau’s office in Vancouver.

Fasken Martineau’s CSR Practice Group has experience in the legal and practical aspects of sustainable resource development around the world. Our broad base of expertise ranges from government relations and environmental assessment to indigenous and Aboriginal relations, and social and community engagement. This expertise fits very well with what Minister Fantino described as the purpose of the Institute: “This institute will help developing countries reap the benefits of their natural resources, and also benefit Canadian companies in fair, transparent, and foreseeable regulation in the extractive sector.”

For more see the Government of Canada’s announcement.