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Canada may soon have a new public reporting regime that will have immediate implications for mining companies. Bill S-211, an act to enact the fighting against forced labour and child labour in supply chains act and to amend the customs tariff, is poised to imminently pass third reading in the House of Commons. If passed, the act will create disclosure obligations for many Canadian mining companies and clarify and expand existing laws on forced labour and child labour.

Disclosure requirements

Bill S-211 will require government institutions and certain “entities” – that produce, sell or distribute goods, import into Canada goods produced outside Canada, or control an entity that engages in such an action – to submit a public annual report. TSX and TSXV listed mining companies meet the definition of “entity.” The report would describe the steps they have taken in the previous fiscal year to prevent and reduce the risk that forced labour and child labour is used at any step of the production of goods in Canada or elsewhere by the entity – or of goods imported into Canada.

If the Bill passes and receives Royal Assent in 2023, the first report will be due in May 2024. Mining companies would have to disclose the steps they are taking this fiscal year to address these risks.

What is an entity?

The definition of an “entity” is similar to that found in the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act – a corporation or a trust, partnership or other unincorporated organization that > is listed on a Canadian stock exchange;

> has a place of business in Canada, does business in Canada, or has assets in Canada and that meets at least two of the following conditions for at least one of its two most recent financial years:

• it has at least $20 million in assets,

• it has generated at least $40 million in revenue, and

• it employs an average of at least 250 employees; or > is prescribed by regulations.

Public annual report content and scope

Mining companies that fall under S-211 would have to include information on the following:

> its structure, activities, and supply chains;

> its policies and its due diligence processes in relation to forced labour and child labour;

> the parts of its business and supply chains that carry a risk of forced labour or child labour being used and the steps it has