Hon. Julie Miville-Dechêne: Senator Moreau, this year, a little over 5,000 companies doing business in Canada reported on their efforts to reduce the risk of forced labour and child labour in their supply chains. This represents 1,000 fewer businesses than in 2024, the first year of the implementation of the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, which I sponsored.
How did this major setback happen? What explains such poor performance by federal institutions that should be setting the example, when half of them did nothing to comply with this legislation?
Hon. Pierre Moreau (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question. This is one of the reasons why I missed question period. I want to share some information with you on the number of companies that reported on their efforts and the difference between 2024 and 2025.
Since 2024, with the implementation of the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, Canadian companies and businesses have been allowed to submit joint reports. These submissions can include parent companies and their subsidiaries, for example. However, in 2025, 40% of the reports filed by companies were joint reports from parent companies and their subsidiaries, for a total of 1,652 reports. This could explain the difference in the figures you suggested between 2024 and 2025.
As for intergovernmental entities, I will probably come back to that with your supplementary question.
Senator Miville-Dechêne: I’m not sure I agree with you on the numbers.
More specifically, products made using forced labour by Uighurs in China are still entering Canada all the time, including red dates and tomato products from the Xinjiang province. Why is the government not honouring its previous promises and giving more resources to the Canada Border Services Agency to carry out this specific mandate?
Senator Moreau: I can’t tell you if there are funds allocated to the Canada Border Services Agency specifically for that type of infraction, but I know the agency’s funding was substantially increased.
With respect to the numbers you mentioned, I would be very happy to share them with you to see if they’re consistent with the figure you have, which was 5,176 businesses. We would have to subtract 1,652 joint reports from the numbers you gave us.