I want to say right off the top that I personally am leading a department and reiterating at all points of contact with them that we are committed to ensuring the highest ethical standards for government procurement, including preventing human rights abuses and forced labour in federal supply chains.
When awarding contracts, therefore, PSPC requires suppliers to agree to terms and conditions prohibiting these labour practices. We conduct integrity checks into suppliers' backgrounds. We recently launched a request for proposal to conduct a risk assessment to determine which products are at higher risk of being produced using human trafficking, forced labour or child labour. The results of this assessment will enable us in turn to further improve our procurement supply chains and protect them in terms of their being affected by labour exploitation.
Again, I am committed to ethical supply chain management and I will continue to work to ensure that we are following the rigorous standards that Canadians expect. That's why I have written to certain suppliers already to make sure that they are not sending us product that has been produced by forced labour.