Corporate Social Responsibility is about transferring power from shareholders to "stakeholders."

This is what Canada's regulatory regime has been doing to pipeline companies.

Corporate Social Responsibility is about transferring power from shareholders to "stakeholders."

This is what Canada's regulatory regime has been doing to pipeline companies.

Approval for pipelines is now dependent on the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) determining to what degree a project serves a whole smorgasbord of social justice values.

The same has historically been done to landowners.

Your property rights have been replaced with "stakeholder" rights.

If a project is proceeding or already on your land, you are now subject to the whims of various government-recognized "stakeholders."

A good example is the recent arrival of Aboriginal Monitors on the property of pipeline landowners, courtesy of the NEB and now, CER.

If you want to understand the regulatory regime you as a pipeline landowner are being increasingly embedded with, this article provides a good backgrounder.

MISES:  "Corporate Social Responsibility" Only Strengthens Corporate Power over the Public

“Business Roundtable Redefines the Purpose of a Corporation to Promote ‘An Economy That Serves All Americans’ ” was the headline of a recent statement put out by this “association of chief executive officers of America’s leading companies.” The statement went on to say:

Since 1978, Business Roundtable has periodically issued Principles of Corporate Governance. Each version of the document issued since 1997 has endorsed principles of shareholder primacy – that corporations exist principally to serve shareholders. With today’s announcement, the new Statement supersedes previous statements and outlines a modern standard for corporate responsibility.

Putting aside the fact that neither in logic, nor in law, nor in morals does an individual CEO, let alone the lobbying arm for CEOs, have the ability to “redefine the purpose of a corporation,” it does prompt the question of what the purpose and responsibilities of a corporation actually are, and who decides this.

From Monopolies to Free Corporations

continue reading