We've had a lot of support, but I must say that we saw how polarizing the debate has been. The chamber of commerce told us it agreed with the objectives of the bill, while asking that we amend about ten sections to make them less onerous.
For instance, the concept of control mechanisms was impossible. To change that, Senator Amina Gerba put forward an amendment that, in my opinion, was relatively important from a symbolic standpoint. Originally from Cameroon, Senator Gerba, herself, worked as a child in her home country. One of the elements that the bill says companies must address in their report is remediation. During the meeting, concerns were often raised that, if the legislative measure works well and companies lay off employees, most often children, what will happen to their families? Indeed, those children are often the only breadwinners in the family.
Adding the remediation element means that there will be consequences and that there must be an attempt to encourage companies to do something outside the business. That's something that's already being done. For instance, Lululemon, a company that's making a lot of effort, discusses remediation in its reports.
