Canadian Tire updated its registration to include the Liberals’ new forced labour bill on its list of lobby topics last week.

Bill C-35, the Ban on Importing Goods Made with Forced Labour Act, was tabled on June 12, just before Parliament’s summer break.

It proposes to expand Canada’s existing system, which requires some companies to publicly report on where there may be risks that forced and child labour was used along their supply chains, to explicitly ban specific products for which “there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they are produced wholly or in part by forced labour.”

The list of banned products would be decided by the foreign affairs minister and must specify “the person who produces them or the country or region in which they are produced, or both.”

If the bill passes, it could align Canada’s forced labour rules with those of the United States, which passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in late 2021.

That law banned imports from Xinjiang, China, on the assumption that products from the region were likely produced by state-sanctioned forced labour of Uyghur people, who are a Muslim ethnic group that live in the province.

Canada’s proposed law could mean significant changes for companies, depending on what products are included.

John Babcock, a Global Affairs Canada spokesperson, said the new bill “is expected to result in increased due diligence expectations, stricter import compliance requirements, enhanced transparency and reporting, and stronger enforcement measures.”

Canadian Tire’s Aug. 7 lobbying update follows a multi-year battle over the company’s supply chain that began in 2022. In November of that year, two Canadian workers’ unions issued a complaint to the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) against Canadian Tire subsidiary Mark’s Work Wearhouse, now simply Mark’s, alleging the company underpaid garment workers in Bangladesh.

CORE agreed to investigate in early 2024, but in a report issued in December, it said it did not pursue the complaint over a lack of clarity about what constitutes a “living wage” in Bangladesh. The unions sought a judicial review, but that was rejected in October.

In June, the federal government disbanded the CORE office entirely.

Babcock said while the CORE office was “one effort among many” to uphold fair work standards, it “only completed one investigation since 2019.”

As a result, responsibilities that would have fallen under the CORE’s mandate “have been consolidated within an enhanced National Contact Point (NCP), reinforcing a single, integrated centre of expertise within Global Affairs Canada.”

The issue of forced labour came back into focus in July, when U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose a global tariff of 10 to 12.5 per cent on 60 countries, including Canada, that the administration says aren’t doing enough to crack down on forced labour.

Legal experts studying the issue have suggested the new round of tariff threats will encourage Canadian lawmakers to strengthen enforcement of the forced labour restrictions upon Parliament’s return, including through bill C-35.

Those threatened levies are in addition to proposed 50 per cent tariffs on a range of products should the countries not reach a trade deal by this week.

Canadian Tire did not respond to the IJF’s questions before deadline.

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