Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all of the witnesses for being here today and looking at this very important legislation with us.
I also want to thank the senator and all those members of the House of Commons who have put this legislation together. It is fundamental that we have good due diligence legislation in this country. It is part of the minister's mandate letter, and it is vitally important that we get this right.
I have proposed a number of amendments that I will put forward. The first amendment is this:
That Bill S-211, in Clause 2, be amended
(a) by replacing lines 21 to 33 on page 2 with the following:
“er unincorporated organization that is listed on a stock exchange in Canada, has a place of business in Canada, does business in Canada or has assets in Canada, but does not include a non-profit organization or a labour union. (entité)”
(b) by adding after line 19 on page 3 the following:
“supply chain, in respect of an entity, includes any individual, entity or organization with which the entity has a relationship that is directly linked to its operations, products or services. (chaine d'approvisionnement)”
Mr. Chair, the reason that this is important to me is that this amendment will replace the definition of an entity within the preamble of the bill. The original definition of entity included businesses that had at least $20 million in assets, generated at least $40 million in revenue and had at least 250 employees. This amendment makes this bill applicable to all for-profit companies in Canada. It also adds a definition of supply chain to the preamble. These changes, once combined with my other amendments, would have far more impact in making all companies do their due diligence with regard to supply chains.
The amendment builds on the testimony that we heard from the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability last Wednesday. We heard from Emily Dwyer that the “obligation to respect human rights according to the UN guiding principles and the OECD guidelines that Canada has signed on to applies to companies of all sizes.”
What we have recommended is that the obligation be placed squarely on all companies. If there's going to be any exclusion for companies of smaller sizes, it should be done via regulation in low-risk sectors, for example.
This legislation should apply to all Canadian companies, Mr. Chair. That's clear from the testimony we heard. This amendment would make it so.
Thank you.