August 22, 2005

In 2005, the governments of Manitoba and Canada co-chaired a “No Sweat Task Force” comprised of senior government procurement officials from across Canada to look at the issue of No Sweat procurement as part of an overall Federal, Territorial and Provincial review of ethical procurement. In the end, due to opposition by some provincial and territorial governments the Task Force was only able to produce a Discussion Paper rather than recommendations and a jointly-drafted No Sweat policy.

Even that Discussion Paper has been kept under wraps, until MSN obtained it under a recent Access to Information request.

The Discussion Paper, dated August 22, 2005, reviews the rationale for No Sweat procurement policies, the various methods of engaging with suppliers to encourage compliance on labour rights, the strategic considerations for governments in developing effective No Sweat policies, and implementation considerations.

Although the paper’s outline of issues regarding the development of No Sweat purchasing policies is fairly straightforward, it is marred by an abundance of caution typical of consensus documents produced by government officials. It’s also disappointing that the Discussion Paper marked the end of the No Sweat Task Force rather than the beginning of some joint policy development across Canada. The committee was disbanded and its work shelved shortly after the Discussion Paper was released.

Contact information for all of the Provincial, Federal and Territorial officials involved in the Ethical Procurement Workgroup is available, should No Sweat activists wish to lobby for a policy in their own province.

• Canadian Government Discussion Paper on No Sweat procurement