Bill S-211 (Canada)

Since June 2024, any organisation that imports goods into Canada, produces or sells goods domestically, or controls an entity doing so — and meets revenue or asset thresholds — must publish annual reports under Bill S-211, the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act. The reports must detail supply chain structure, risk identification procedures, due diligence and remediation steps, training programmes, and an effectiveness assessment. Failure to file triggers fines up to CAD $250,000, while incomplete or misleading disclosures draw scrutiny from Public Safety Canada and procurement exclusion from federal contracts.

Bill S-211 overlaps meaningfully with the UK Modern Slavery Act and Australia's equivalent legislation, but diverges in its emphasis on board-level attestation and its explicit questionnaire format. Companies already publishing a UK Modern Slavery Statement cannot simply reuse it for Canada — the disclosure areas differ, the filing mechanism is separate, and Canadian regulators expect Canada-specific supply chain mapping rather than generic global statements.

Sustalium addresses this by maintaining jurisdiction-specific report templates within a single workspace. Your Canadian filing draws on the same underlying supplier evidence — audit reports, risk assessments, remediation records — as your UK or Australian statement, but the output format, disclosure structure, and attestation requirements conform to Bill S-211 specifically. Each annual cycle builds on the prior year's filing, creating a documented trail of continuous improvement rather than a fresh exercise every May.

For a detailed breakdown of $250,000 fines and director liability under Bill S-211, read our Canada Bill S-211 compliance guide.