Still Unclear Whether Canada’s New Forced and Child Labour Act Applies to Your Business? Government Confirms Late Filings Will Be Accepted

Much confusion has surrounded Canada’s new Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act (the “Act”).

Private companies have struggled in assessing whether the Act applies to them, while others appear to remain unaware of the Act’s reporting obligations in the first place. As result, many companies may have missed the first filing deadline of May 31, 2024.

In part for these reasons, Public Safety Canada has confirmed it will accept late submissions and is updating its website and online questionnaire accordingly. The government will also communicate its revised approach more broadly once fully implemented.

The key takeaways for private businesses are twofold:

• If you remain unclear whether the Act applies to your business, now is the time to reassess.
  
  
  • The main criteria for private companies are:
    
    
    • Doing business in Canada, having a location in Canada or having assets in Canada;
    • meeting at least two of the three size-related thresholds ($20M in assets, $40M in revenues, or 250 employees) during at least one of the past two fiscal years; and
    • conducting covered activities, which include manufacturing goods (inside or outside of Canada) or importing goods into Canada, and controlling other reporting entities.
• If you previously filed but did so without adequate time or resources, you can consider filing an improved report.