Why It Matters
We take our responsibility as a leading Canadian retailer seriously, doing our part to uphold human rights and work to eliminate forced labour and child labour in supply chains. We work closely with supplier partners locally, nationally and internationally, collaborating around shared values to provide customers with responsibly sourced products.
Our Approach
We endorse the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Core Conventions of the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Our policies, practices and ongoing commitment to protect human rights have been informed by these international codes and conventions.
Focus on Human Rights in Our Workplaces
We have internal policies and practices in place to ensure human rights are respected and we address labour issues within our own operations. This includes:
- The Empire Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, which requires all teammates working in our business to uphold shared values, act with integrity and comply with all applicable laws and regulations
- Our DE&I and People Strategies, which further embed our commitments to foster inclusive and respectful workplaces
- Our Health and Safety Policy, which embeds our commitment to ensure safe and healthy work environments
- Our new Commitment Statement to Indigenous Peoples Across Canada and Indigenous Relations Policy, which inform our approach to hiring, partnering and reconciliation
Focus on Human Rights in Our Supply Chain
In 2025, in compliance with federal legislation, we filed our second Fighting Forced Labour and Child Labour Report. The report outlines due diligence practices, starting with Empire’s Ethical and Sustainable Sourcing Policy (ESSP). Learn more in Ethical & Sustainable Sourcing.
Developing a New Human Rights Due Diligence Program
In fiscal 2025, we gathered input from internal stakeholders to develop a broader Human Rights Due Diligence Program to address supply chain risks, with a focus on forced labour and child labour. Program elements include:
- Reviewing and assessing policies and management systems
- Providing human rights risk training from a third party to key stakeholders
- Cascading training resources to national merchandising team to build understanding of human rights risks and capability to work with suppliers to support human rights risk management and mitigation
- Tracking progress and communicating about our effectiveness
As we improve our due diligence approach, we will also continue to strengthen existing supplier and purchasing initiatives that support human rights, including our work on sustainable palm oil, sustainable seafood and Fairtrade. Read more in Ethical & Sustainable Sourcing.
Own Brands Due Diligence
We expect all suppliers to uphold ethical practices, and we hold our Own Brands suppliers to the same high standard. Own Brands suppliers are vetted for food safety and quality and are required to sign Supplier Minimum Quality Standards, which detail expectations in ethical manufacturing. Off-shore suppliers complete a mandatory social compliance audit. In fiscal 2025, all Own Brand suppliers were contacted to provide information, including third-party audit reports and details on their in-house programs and policies, to help verify that forced labour and child labour do not take place in their networks. For categories with identified risks (including at-risk commodities or country-of-origin), we encourage Own Brands suppliers to provide SMETA (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit) reports, which are housed in our internal database.
Committed to Listening and Improving
Embedded into the ESSP is a grievance mechanism through which employees, suppliers or anyone with concerns can report potential violations. Concerns can be shared confidentially through the Ethics Line or submitted to a member of the Empire team. The ethics line is professionally supported by an independent organization, ClearView Connects. All grievances reported through this mechanism are thoroughly investigated and, where appropriate, directed to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.
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Our commitment to human rights includes staying focused on ethical and sustainable sourcing while always looking out for our people and supplier partners.
As a family nurturing families, we want to ensure Canadians are taken care of today, tomorrow, and in the future. By doing OurPart™ for the environment, we hope to inspire our customers to do theirs. Every step we take together—big or small—can make a difference.
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