Annual Report on Forced Labour and Child Labour Prevention
Co-operative Regionale de Nipissing-Sudbury Limited
Annual Report 2024
Financial year October 1st ,2022 to September 30th ,2023 Introduction
Co-operative Regionale de Nipissing-Sudbury Limited is a cooperative with a Board of Directors, a General Manager, 94 full time employees and 50 part time employees: The General Manager plays a pivotal role in managing the overall business and oversees the implementation of our policies and procedures.
Co-operative Regionale de Nipissing-Sudbury Limited is comprised of petroleum and propane sales, 2 grocery stores, a gas bar, and agricultural needs: grain marketing, storage and elevators, seed, fertilizer, crop protection, soil sampling and haying as well as provide livestock feed and supplies. The CO-OP has several different locations: Administration Office, Algoma Agricultural Center, Noelville Foodland (grocery store), Northern Feed & Supplies, Service Department-Energy, Sudbury Petroleum, Tern Ag Center, Verner Ag Center, Verner Clover Farms (grocery store), Verner Gas Bar, Verner Bulk Plant and Verner Propane.
Our main suppliers are Growmark, Parkland Fuels, Factor Gas, Primemax Energy, Metro Depot Suncor Terminal (Toronto), Ottawa Suncor Terminal (Ottawa), Masterfeed, Sobeys (and their suppliers), Harvest King, Tree of Life, Chapman's Ice Cream, Sealtest, Beatrice, Culligan water, Tank traders, Pepsi CO., Coke-a-Cola, Canadian Bread Company Limited, Bunzl Canada Inc, Frito Lay Canada, Nestle Ice Cream, Gray Ridge Eggs Inc., PBG Canada, United Floral Distributor Janix, Bumstead, Miller Farms, Bauman Agris Services and Transportation
Procurement Activities
In the fiscal year 2022-2023, the CO-OP had a total budget of approximately $150 million. Most of this budget was allocation to salary and benefit expenses, Operation and maintenance of vehicles and purchases for our retail business. T he CO-OP spent approximately $131 million on contracts for goods and services. These contracts covered various types of goods, including:
- Bulk Petroleum
- Bulk Propane
- Grains
- Seeds
- Grocery store inventory
- Office supplies
- Computers and office equipment for offices
- Livestock supplies for our retail store and agriultural centers
The CO-OP has just begun to review its supply chains to ensure that forced labour or child labour is not used in the production of goods purchased. A Modern Slavery Policy has been drafted and will be reviewed by legal counsel and then implemented. The CO-OP also checks proof of age for all their employees at time of hiring.
Remediation Measures
The CO-OP will take the following steps to address any identified risks:
- Remediation: the CO-OP will create awareness about labor rights and child protection.
- Training: the CO-OP staff will receive training on identifying and preventing forced labour and child labour risks.
- Assessing Effectiveness: The CO-OP will evaluate the effectiveness of its measures and adjust its approach as needed.