... The Minister of Labour’s December 2021 mandate letter includes a commitment to lead the introduction of legislation to eradicate forced labour from the supply chains of Canadian businesses and ensure that Canadian businesses operating abroad do not contribute to human rights abuses.

... This initiative is complemented by a number of measures that the Government of Canada has undertaken to tackle labour exploitation in global supply chains in recent years, as summarised in the preamble of the What We Heard Report.

Policy work is underway to examine key elements that often form part of supply chain legislation, in order to determine the appropriate approach for the Canadian context. These elements include:

• the scope of potential legislation (e.g. human rights focused legislation, forced labour focused legislation)
• the type of requirements for businesses (e.g. due diligence obligations, transparency reporting)
• the entities that would be captured by the legislation and any potential flexibilities that should be considered (e.g. threshold requirements, phased-in approach, flexibilities for smaller businesses)
• the approach to enforcement (e.g. potential penalties, options for remedy) and governance (e.g. governance body and its powers), and
• any non-legislative tools and other measures that are needed to support entities in meeting their obligations under the legislation

If you have any input or comments on the above-mentioned, or other key elements of potential supply chain legislation, please send an email to EDSC.AIIT.ChainesApprovisionnement-SupplyChains.IILA.ESDC@labour-travail.gc.ca by Friday April 8, 2022.