Canada launches consultations to strengthen anti-modern slavery regime

The Government of Canada has launched a public consultation process, seeking feedback on proposed measures to further strengthen the existing import prohibition on goods mined, manufactured, or produced by forced labour. The deadline to submit feedback is November 15, 2024.

What you need to know

• The Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act (the Act) came into force on January 1, 2024.The Act imposed a reporting requirement on companies and governments on actions taken to combat the risk of forced labour or child labour in their supply chain and strengthened an import ban on goods manufactured by forced labour and child labour.
• The current consultations were launched after Public Safety Canada (PSC) submitted its 2024 Annual Report (the PSC Report) on the Act to Parliament.
• The consultations address six potential measures that the Government of Canada is considering implementing, including publishing a list of goods at risk of forced labour, creating a supply chain traceability process, and strengthening Government information collection, sharing and enforcement mechanisms.

Consultation and proposed measures

The Government of Canada is seeking stakeholder views on additional measures to strengthen Canada’s import ban on goods mined, manufactured, or produced, wholly or in part, by forced labour. This includes possibly creating a due diligence requirement for certain specified goods that are at higher risk of forced labour in their supply chains. In this context, Canada is seeking stakeholder feedback on the potential benefits and risks of the following potential measures to change the current regime:

• Publication of a list of specified goods at risk of forced labour informed by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) forced labour indicators and definitions, and supplemented by other sources of information.
• Creation of a supply chain “minimum traceability” process in which importers of specified goods appearing on the above-cited public list would be required to provide documentation regarding the imported goods’ supply chain journey.
• This process would be an addition to the current import ban—as the overall ban and previous assessment processes would remain in place for those goods not on the public list.
• Changes to the cost-recovery model whereby the importer of goods deemed to be made by forced labour would be responsible for the payment of all costs associated with the detention, removal, abandonment, and/or forfeiture, including any transport, storage, and/or disposal fees.
• Creation of a streamlined mechanism to settling disagreements between importers and the Government on decisions that prevented the entry into the market of specific goods.
• A strengthening of the legislative and regulatory authorities regarding information collection/sharing, enforcement, and disposition, within North America.

These proposed measures are consistent with the Government’s previous intentions to introduce legislation to further strengthen Canada’s anti-forced labour statutory regime.

What’s next

These consultations mark an important step towards mitigating risks of forced labour being used across the supply chain of companies to provide a more robust regime. Any businesses or other stakeholders that wish to provide feedback may do so by November 15, 2024.

We will be publishing a further bulletin on PSC’s inaugural report to Parliament under the Act.