INTRODUCTION
BCI Foods Inc. (hereinafter BCI) is committed to complying with standards and legislation about conduct and social responsibility, particularly section 211 (s. 211) of the Canadian Criminal Code which prohibits forced labour and child labour.
This report covers the fiscal year from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024.
BCI FOODS INC. STRUCTURE, OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAINS
BCI is a privately owned food processing company that manufactures canned soups, sauces and meals in flexible pouches. Our manufacturing operations are based in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec.
Our ingredients and other raw materials are sourced from various suppliers. Our suppliers can be found all over the world, but are mainly based in North America.
Our finished product is shipped to various distribution centres.
MEASURES TO PREVENT AND REDUCE THE RISK OF FORCED LABOUR AND CHILD LABOUR
Our organization believes that respecting human rights is a fundamental responsibility.
BCI only employs staff located in Canada. Our employment standards exceed the regulations in the Act respecting labour standards (the “Act”), which establishes minimum employment standards for all employees. CNESST performs several rigorous audits every year to verify our various standards such as safety and harassment.
BCI prohibits the employment of persons under the minimum legal working age, as defined by applicable laws. We also apply legislative provisions concerning forced labour and working hours.
BCI collects information on worker recruitment and maintains internal controls to ensure that all workers are recruited voluntarily.
POLICIES AND PROTECTIONS
Our policies and regulations are shared with all company employees with particular regard to compliance with standards. All employees must comply with these standards.
BCI is also audited for ethics compliance (SMETA 2 pillar audit for labour standards and health/safety)
A statement will be sent to our business partners about our compliance with the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act. We ask that any suppliers who has concerns related to child labour or forced labour inform management, human resources or any legal representative in the company.
DUE DILIGENCE
A risk assessment is underway to identify the risk of forced labour or child labour of suppliers across sectors and regions.
BCI will conduct due diligence to identify the risk of forced labour of our business partners and within our operations. This includes communications with our suppliers and subcontractors about our expectations regarding compliance with our policies and applicable laws.
Over the past year, we learned about the new government guidelines, reviewed our operations and discussed the risks associated with modern slavery in our operations and supply chains with BCI entities.
LIABILITY AND REDRESS
BCI will take appropriate corrective action if forced labour or child labour is identified in our operations or through our business partners.
We encourage our employees and suppliers to notify us of any concerns about ethical or legal violations.
TRAINING AND AWARENESS
BCI is committed to educating employees and stakeholders about the legal obligations and risks of forced labour and child labour.
COMPLIANCE MONITORING AND REPORTING
BCI reviews agreements with business partners to ensure compliance with this policy.
CONCLUSION
In accordance with the requirements of the Act, in particular to section 11 thereof, I certify that I have reviewed the information contained in the report for the entity or entities listed above. To the best of my knowledge and after exercising due diligence, I confirm that the information contained in the report is true, accurate and complete in all material respects for the purposes of applying the Act, for the above-noted year.
Daniel Cousineau
President
May 21, 2024