On March 5, 2024, Public Safety Canada made changes to the guidance on reporting requirements (“Guidance”) under the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, S.C. 2023, c. 9 (“the Act”) revising its original December 2023 guidance (discussed in our previous post).

Key Changes to the Guidance

The changes to the Guidance include:

• Changes to the guidance on which entities must report: the updated guidance states that “Reporting requirements are for entities producing goods in Canada or elsewhere or importing goods produced outside Canada. Reporting requirements are also for entities controlling other entities engaged in these activities.” Notably, there is no longer a reference to “selling” or “distributing” goods. Although presumably intended to clarify which entities must report, the Guidance now stands in contrast with the underlying statutory obligation, which remains unchanged and requires entities “selling” or “distributing” goods in Canada or elsewhere to report.
• Clarification on the reporting obligations of subsidiaries: the Guidance states that subsidiaries must determine their reporting obligations independently of their parent companies and that subsidiaries should use their own financial statements (i.e., they should not include the financials of the parent company) in determining if they meet the definition of “entity” under the Act.
• Clarification of the length requirement: the 10-page limit set out in the original Guidance has been changed to a recommendation rather than a requirement. The 100MB maximum size and requirement to submit as a pdf is unchanged.
• Guidance on use of the questionnaire in preparing the report: previously, the Guidance had stated that the “exact same information and structure provided through the questionnaire” could be used to prepare the report. This has been removed from the updated Guidance, and it is now only recommended that the questionnaire be used as a resource when preparing the report.
• Clarification on uploading bilingual reports: if an entity chooses to file in both official languages, it should upload two separate pdfs.
• Clarification on timing of posting on website: the May 31 deadline applies only to submission to Public Safety Canada and entities should publish their reports on their websites “at their earliest convenience following submission”.
• Clarification on applicability to Crown Corporations: the updated Guidance clarifies that provincial and municipal institutions are not considered government entities, but that some non-federal Crown Corporations may meet the definition of “entity” and may therefore have corresponding reporting obligations.

What Should Entities Be Doing?

Corporations, trusts, partnerships and other unincorporated organizations should be determining whether or not they are required to file under the Act. This includes non-Canadian entities that have certain connections with Canada. Entities that have filing obligations should be working to prepare and file their reports prior to the May 31, 2024 filing deadline or potentially sooner in the case of Canada Business Corporations Act entities with pending annual financial statement delivery obligations.

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