Good afternoon.
My name is Robert Chant, and I serve as the senior vice-president of corporate affairs and communications at Loblaw Companies. Included among my duties is leading our corporate social responsibility initiatives, including community investment and charitable giving.
Mr. Chair, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to this matter.
On behalf of the entire Loblaw organization, I'd like to first extend, once again, our sympathy and our thoughts and our prayers to the victims and families who lost loved ones in the tragic building collapse in Savar on April 24.
At Loblaw, we have a very robust social responsibility regime and a strong commitment to ethical sourcing that includes vendor agreements that require inspections—audits, if you will—of our vendors' facilities, including the one in Savar. Clearly, it wasn't enough to ensure safe working conditions in this case. Frankly, it has not been industry practice to audit the structural integrity of the facilities our vendors use—clearly it should be.
In the hours following the collapse, we determined we had production occurring in the building. That day we informed the media, our employees, and our customers, and gave our commitment to keep them apprised as the situation developed. We were obviously shocked and deeply saddened by this senseless tragedy. We began to take immediate action with local authorities, with the Canadian government, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and with industry to determine how we could help. Our executive chairman, Galen G. Weston, publicly committed to a plan of action, which I'd like to discuss with you today.
It involves creating and funding a relief plan for victims and their families, establishing a new standard at Loblaw for our control brand products—those are our private label products—and enforcing that standard with Loblaw people on the ground in Bangladesh and across the region. Our approach is a combination of actions, both specific to Loblaw and related to our participation in broader industry initiatives. We believe this is the right approach for us as we work to drive lasting change in countries like Bangladesh.
Please let me elaborate further on how we are executing our commitments.
In the days after the tragedy, a team of senior Loblaw executives travelled to Bangladesh. I was part of that team, and I can tell you it was critical for us to go, to learn first-hand about the situation, and to be able to determine how to deploy resources in a manner that means the most to the Bangladeshi people. To that end, we have committed to a three-pronged relief program for the victims and their families to provide support now and in the future.
This includes, first, direct financial assistance. In working with labour, industry, and government, we will be particularly focused on ensuring that the money reaches those who need it the most: the families and the victims.
Second is rehabilitation for injured workers. We will provide support for injured workers through a local rehabilitation hospital in Savar to aid the recovery of injured workers, and when possible, their re-entry into the working place. I was pleased to see that Carolyn Scott, who's associated with that hospital, is here today as an observer.
Third is a community-based program with Save the Children Canada and Save the Children Bangladesh, which will provide life skills education, and workplace support for garment industry workers and their families, particularly in the Savar area of the capital city of Dhaka. Helping victims and their family members find and hold a job is a critical piece of the recovery process, because jobs in the garment industry help improve the quality of life of the people of Bangladesh. It has been well documented that of the nearly 4 million garment industry workers in Bangladesh, the vast majority are young women.
Garment industry jobs have been instrumental in bolstering the role of women in the economy and even within their own families. As The Globe and Mail's south Asia bureau chief, Stephanie Nolen, wrote recently:Women with jobs and income get a bigger voice in their family decisions; their children go to school, get vaccinated.
Amit Chakma, the president of the University of Western Ontario and a native of Bangladesh, also commented that the most significant contribution of the garment industry “is the economic empowerment of a vast number of women by providing them with a source of income”. That's why we have committed to keeping our apparel production in Bangladesh. Our chairman said the apparel industry can be a force for good by staying and improving workplace conditions. We believe that properly inspected, well-built factories can be an agent for economic development and stability in countries like Bangladesh.
To drive that forward, we have undertaken two very important initiatives. First, we have signed on to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety that will establish a program that strives to protect workers from fire, building collapses, and other accidents. It sets out specific timelines for remediation of facilities, requires the cooperation of the signatories, and will make audits publicly available. But its overarching purpose and mission is to protect the workers not only from further disasters but also from income interruption while remediation work takes place on the factories that require remediation.
In addition to the accord, we have established our own Loblaw standard that states that Loblaw control brand products must be made in facilities that respect local construction and building codes. Vendors that want to do business with Loblaw must comply. To increase our visibility to, and ensure compliance from, our vendors, we will have Loblaw people on the ground in Bangladesh and the region in general to work with our suppliers and regularly visit factory sites. They will report directly to us and work to ensure that goods produced for sale by us were made in an environment that reflects Canadian values.
Twenty years ago the international apparel industry aligned with local governments to address the issue of child labour. Through a collaborative effort tremendous progress has been made. We must come together again to ensure the poor structural integrity that led to this unspeakable tragedy in Savar does not happen again.
In closing, l'd like to thank the officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade who worked with us in Bangladesh and here in Canada. In particular, I would like to thank Heather Cruden, Canada's high commissioner to Bangladesh, and her terrific team for the support and engagement that they provided us before, during, and after our visit. I've been in touch with them every day since our visit. They've been absolutely tremendous and were essential and integral to the success of our trip. Canada can be very proud of the work they're doing.
We look forward to the Government of Canada's continued participation with industry on improving working and building conditions in developing countries. l'd also like to thank the membership of the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Canadian Labour Congress for supporting us in our response to the tragedy and in our participation in the accord.
One message we received loud and clear from the day we arrived in Dhaka was, please don't leave. To the Bangladeshi people, we want you to know that we hear you, and we'll work with you to drive positive change in the apparel industry.
Thank you.