Our Commitment
It is Canac’s priority to show integrity and commitment to our core values and principles that extend to 
our employees and suppliers. As a family-owned company doing business with local and international 
suppliers, we are seeking to ensure fair and ethical treatment of all workers throughout our global supply 
chains. We are also dedicated to addressing the challenges of supply chain compliance by placing 
corporate social responsibility at the center of our decisions and working procedures. 

Our Actions
We implemented the following measures to protect workers' rights and interests in our business 
activities and supply chains:

• Mapping our different supply chains (identifying geographic areas of our first-tier suppliers);
• Establishing a structure to proceed with an internal assessment of risk of of our activities  
  and supply chains;
• Developing due diligence policies and processes for identifying, addressing, and prohibiting 
  the use of forced labour and/or child labour in our organization activities and supply chains;
• Developing anti-forced labour and/or child labour standards by drafting and implementing a 
  Supplier Code of Conduct.
• Developing a supplier code of conduct defining minimum standards we expect from
  all our suppliers, but it’s not meant to substitute international intergovernmental co-operation 
  standards nor for international and local legislation. Human rights standards are a set of rights 
  which recognize the inherent dignity, freedom, and equality of all human beings, as expressed in 
  the United Nations International Bill of Human Rights and in the International Labour 
  Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

You can download the full report here.

 

 

Introduction

This report is produced by CANAC-MARQUIS GRENIER LTÉE (“Canac” or “we”) for the financial year 
ending December 31st, 2023, and states the actions that have been taken to prevent and reduce the risk 
of forced and child labour throughout our supply chains. We are presenting this first report pursuant to 
Canada’s new Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, SC 2023, c 9 (the 
“Act”). We are also aiming to show our commitment to ethical sourcing and corporate responsibility to 
continuously improve our business practices.

Steps taken to prevent and reduce risks of forced labour and child labour

Our Commitment
It is Canac’s priority to show integrity and commitment to our core values and principles that extend to 
our employees and suppliers. As a family-owned company doing business with local and international 
suppliers, we are seeking to ensure fair and ethical treatment of all workers throughout our global supply 
chains. We are also dedicated to addressing the challenges of supply chain compliance by placing 
corporate social responsibility at the center of our decisions and working procedures. 

Our Actions
During the reporting period, we implemented the following measures to prevent and to reduce the risk 
of forced labor and child labor within our business operations and our supply chains:
• Mapping our different supply chains (identifying geographic areas of our first-tier suppliers);
• Establishing a structure to proceed with an internal assessment of risk of forced labour and/or 
child labour in the organization’s activities and supply chains;
• Developing due diligence policies and processes for identifying, addressing, and prohibiting 
the use of forced labour and/or child labour in the organization activities and supply chains; 
• Developing anti-forced labour and/or child labour standards by drafting and implementing a 
Supplier Code of Conduct.
Details of the above actions are set out in this report.

 

Supplementary information

A) Structur, activities and supply chains 
Structure and activities
Canac is a private business corporation governed by the Business Corporations Act (Québec), whose head 
office is located in Quebec City. Canac operates mainly in the retail trade of hardware products, tools, 
wood, and other building materials. During Canac’s peak season, a total of 4900 employees are working 
full-time or part-time in either the head office or in one of our 33 stores located in the province of 
Québec.
As the first independent hardware and building supply stores implemented in Québec city, Canac has an 
expertise of almost 150 years in the industry. With our own training center accredited by Emploi-Québec,

we're aiming to perpetuate the hardware spirit of the past by ensuring that all our employees 
are providing our customers with advice that are both fair and adapted to their needs.
Through its diversified product assortment, Canac is dedicated to offer the best product value to 
professional construction contractors, businesses and individuals renovating or decorating their home 
or their office. Since the acquisition of Canac by Group Laberge in 1985, the company is continually 
growing by opening new stores and by renovating their maturing stores to meet evolving needs and 
expectations of customers.

Supply Chains 
In 2023, 938 direct suppliers were reported in our centralised information system and most of our 
suppliers are based in Canada. More precisely, our direct local suppliers currently represent 
approximately 87% of our total purchase volume in Canadian dollars and the merchandise purchased 
from suppliers located in Canada originate from Canada or abroad. In 2024, we will continue working on 
specific procedures to closely monitor and update our active suppliers’ portfolio and supply chain.

Beside Canada, where many of our partners are located, our suppliers are based in various countries 
mainly including China and the United States. Our total business volume is distributed among the 
countries identified in the below world map:

 

 

In 2023, our top ten sourcing countries by dollars spent were: Canada, China, the United States, India, 
Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, and Poland. As most of our imported products are 
produced in China, we are closely working with a third-party whose team is inspecting the products 
directly at the production facility on the behalf of Canac. In 2024, this third-party will be greatly involved 
to facilitate the diffusion and the implementation of our due diligence processes.

B) Policies and Due Diligence Processes

B.1) Mapping our different supply chains 
We have identified the geographic regions where our tier 1 suppliers are located, and we have 
evaluated the total business volume (in CAD $) related to their respective country. In 2024, we 
will continue mapping our supply chains to identify the subcontracting factories related to our 
vendors (if applicable).

 

B.2) Conducting an internal risk assessment related to forced labour and/or child labour in the 
organization’s activities and supply chains.
Considering the regions and industries with high prevalence rates of forced labour and child 
labour, we have identified the structure that will be followed to adequately evaluate the risks 
related to our supply chains. Details of the above action are set out in the section about forced 
labor and child labor risk.

B.3) Due Diligence policies and processes
We have developed the following due diligence policies and processes for identifying, addressing, 
and prohibiting the use of forced labour and/or child labour in our activities and supply chains.

New Supplier - Qualification Process
All new suppliers are required to undertake to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct as part of the 
New Supplier Qualification Process. Moreover, we are planning to require all potential manufacturing 
suppliers seeking to produce our private labels products to be audited by an eligible and internationally 
recognized third-party organization. We created this flowchart to be applied as our official 2024 process:

 

 

Current Supplier- Due Diligence Process
Current suppliers are required to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct as part of our supplier 
management process.
Based on our preliminary risk analysis, as of today we consider that our private labels manufacturers 
located in Asia are currently representing the highest risk of forced and/or child labour in our supply 
chains. Therefore, in 2024, we will require all our tier 1 private labels manufacturers to be audited by 
internationally recognized and independent third parties supporting and monitoring social compliance. 
However, we are planning to adjust our evaluation and due diligence processes for all our active 
suppliers once every step of our risk evaluation stated in section C of this report is completed. All our 
international manufacturing suppliers located in Asia will be subject to the below general process:

 

 
 

Reporting Policy

All Canac’s employees and partners also have an obligation to report if they suspect forced labor or child 
labor in our supply chains. To do so, Canac provides multiple channels for them to report any potential 
breach, on a confidential basis or not, such as:
• Employees engagement: Canac employees can directly contact designated compliance 
person or via a confidential phone line.
• Suppliers' engagement: Through official and continuous communication, our suppliers are 
encouraged to communicate any concerns or incident related to forced labor or child labor 
directly to our purchasing and/or compliance team.

B.4) Supplier Code of Conduct
Our Supplier Code of Conduct defines the minimum standards that we require all our suppliers 
to comply with, but it’s not meant to substitute international intergovernmental co-operation 
standards nor for international and local legislation. Human rights standards are a set of rights 
which recognize the inherent dignity, freedom, and equality of all human beings, as expressed in 
the United Nations International Bill of Human Rights and in the International Labour 
Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

C) Assessing and Managing Forced Labour and Child Labour risk
Following our preliminary risks analysis, we consider there is a low risk of forced labour or child labour 
in our direct operations. In addition, the entirety of Canac’s workforce is employed or contracted in 
Canada and the vast majority is employed or contracted directly by Canac, not through subcontractors. 
Nevertheless, we have determined that our private label manufacturers in Asia currently present the 
highest risk of forced and/or child labour in our supply chain. This conclusion is based on a preliminary 
evaluation and our analysis will be extended when the below steps will be fully completed in the 
upcoming year. 
We consider that this complete evaluation is crucial to uphold our ethical standards and to mitigate the 
risk of forced and child labour in our supply chains. We define our methodology to evaluate and manage 
the risks as below:
1) Risk mapping : Draw up an initial and comprehensive overview of Canac’s fields of activity and types 
of business relationships and closely examine potential indicators of forced labor. 
2) Supplier evaluation : Evaluate our suppliers based on predetermined criteria, including but not limited 
to their ongoing mechanisms to ensure ethical business practices and their compliance with laws and 
international standards.
4) Risk scoring : Develop a risk scoring system to prioritize the identified risks based on their severity and 
potential impacts on the workers involved in our supply chains and on our general business conditions.
5) On-site audits : Conduct or request third parties to conduct on-site audits for high-risk suppliers or 
facilities to assess working conditions.
6) Continuous monitoring : Implement mechanisms for ongoing monitoring and surveillance of our 
supply chains to detect any potential changes in risks related to forced and child labour.

D) Remediation Measures
As of today, we have not identified any forced labor or child labor in our activities and supply chains. As 
such, we have not had to take any measures to remediate any forced labour or child labour. However, 
we have determined action plans to prevent forced labor and child labor associated harms:
• If there is a suspicion, reviewing and analysing the documentation provided by supplier’s 
management team or related to the case to identify and to understand the problem.
• Working in collaboration with highly qualified third-party organizations to identify the causes 
of the problem and to apply an adequate remediation or business termination plan adapted 
to the case.
• As a second important deed, we have planned grievance mechanisms:
• Analysing the local laws to correctly address the problem to relevant parties including local 
authorities and inform them of the findings.
• Canac will formally communicate with the factory representative to begin the corrective 
action plan which will include solutions and preventive policies. 

E) Remediation of Loss of Income to Vulnerable Families
As we have not identified any forced labor or child labor in our activities and supply chains, we have not 
had to take any measures to remediate any loss of income to vulnerable families resulting from 
measures taken to eliminate the use of forced labor or child labor in our activities and supply chains. 
However, based on the implementation of our due diligence processes, if remediation measures must 
be taken, we will determine a plan to remediate the loss income to the most vulnerable families.

F) Training
In 2023, our employees making contracting or purchasing decisions have been sensibilized to their 
responsibility regarding ethical sourcing, but trainings were voluntary. In 2024, official training regarding 
the measures that must be taken to prevent and to reduce the risk of forced and child labour throughout 
our supply chains will be mandatory for some employees. 
The due diligence processes that have been defined in 2023 will be duly explained to all concerned party 
and officially applied in 2024 with the support of Canac’s Purchasing Director and Canac’s Import and 
Compliance Specialist. In 2024, Canac intends to provide training to targeted audiences that will include 
more details about child and forced labor due diligence processes.

G) Assessing Effectiveness
At Canac, we are committed to addressing the risks of forced labour and child labour in our activities 
and those of our suppliers. As explained in this report, we have introduced measures for the purpose of 
preventing and reducing such risks.
Although no actions have been taken to assess the effectiveness of these measures yet, we plan to 
evaluate its efficacy in preventing and mitigating the risk of forced labour and child labour within its 
operations and supply chain at a subsequent phase.
We will develop a plan to assist suppliers in renewing certifications and continue to follow up on 
nonconformities that are generated to reach ideal social compliance.

Approval and Attestation
This report was approved pursuant to paragraph 11 (4)(a) of the Act by the board of Canac.
In accordance with the requirements of the Act, and in particular section 11 thereof, I attest that I have 
reviewed the information contained in the report for the entity or entities listed above. Based on my 
knowledge, and having exercised reasonable diligence, I attest that the information in the report is true, 
accurate and complete in all material respects for the purposes of the Act, for the reporting year listed 
above.