This statement has been prepared in accordance with Canada’s Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, which came into force on January 1, 2024 (the“Canadian Act”), on behalf of Motion LP (“Motion”, “we”, “our”, or “us”), an Ontario Limited Partnership headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. This statement outlines the steps we have taken and policies we have in place that are intended to identify and prevent modern slavery, including forced labour, child labour and human trafficking, in our business operations and supply chains.
Our Commitment
At Motion, labour and human rights are a top priority. We recognize that all forms of modern slavery, including forced labour, child labour and human trafficking, are a violation of fundamental human rights. We are committed to treating everyone who works at or with Motion with dignity and respect. We explicitly prohibit human trafficking, child labour, and the use of involuntary labour within our supply base, and this extends to forced, bonded, or indentured labour, involuntary or exploitive prison labour, and other forms of modern slavery. We strive to uphold the highest standards of legal and ethical conduct.
Our understanding of child labour and forced labour is based on the definitions set out in the Canadian Act and is guided by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the conventions of the International Labour Organization (“ILO”) relating to forced or compulsory labour. Motion’s approach is guided by these documents, is anchored to the framework set forth in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and embodied in our employee policies and code of conduct.
Motion is a provider of complex and customized mobility and home accessibility solutions headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Motion is a Limited Partnership privately held by a Canadian mid-market private equity firm. Our corporate office is located in Toronto, Ontario. We have 48 locations employing 700 employees spread through Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.
Motion’s Senior Management Team is responsible for setting the company’s strategy, shaping its culture and developing key policies, including on issues such as labour and human rights. The Team, along with the HR Director, regularly reviews our approach and policies and addresses risks as they arise.
Our supply chain risk
We primarily source goods from a North American network of suppliers with a limited amount of accessibility products coming from Europe. There are a limited number of suppliers for major mobility items, wheelchairs etc., and are contract based with a large range of other suppliers for Mobility and Accessibility items on a non contractual basis. Since these procurements are purchased from US and Canadian suppliers the overall risk of our procurement contributing to modern slavery is minimal. The services we purchase, including but not limited to professional services (i.e., accountants, legal, consultants, etc.), travel and entertainment, information technology services, and general office expenditures, are sourced from a range of vendors located in Canada. All major suppliers complete a survey assessing their own supply chain risks and are required to provide Motion with a copy of their statement if in place.
For the 2023 financial year, Motion is required to file a report under the Canadian Act along with this statement. In completing our statement, we mapped the respective supply chains for material suppliers assessed the suppliers’ risks of modern slavery, using criteria such as country of origin, industry and sector and requested that they complete a questionnaire regarding their respective forced labour or child labour practices.
Given the primary location of our vendors and the completed surveys, Motion is not aware of any forced labour, child labour or human trafficking incidents in our supply chain.
Our people risk
Next to product cost our most significant expenditure relates to the salaries and benefits of our staff. The overall risk that our operations may cause or contribute to modern slavery is minimal, given that our workforce is largely skilled and experienced. In addition, our integrated approach to human rights and our commitment to providing a safe, fair, and respectful workplace and our robust human resources policies and procedures support the protection of human rights.
We have a comprehensive suite of corporate responsibility policies, including policies on equal employment opportunity, diversity, equity, inclusion, discrimination, harassment, health and safety, conflicts of interest and code of conduct (the “Code”). All of these policies are contained in our employee handbook. On an annual basis, our employees are required to acknowledge familiarity with and adherence to the Code. Motion’s employees are encouraged to report violations of our policies to either our HR Director or Motion’s confidential and/or anonymous 24-hour Employee Hotline.
Motion views corporate culture as a cornerstone underpinning all our sustainability-related efforts. Ensuring that employees are engaged and working with purpose is critical to the success of a company. We assess our corporate culture through the periodic use of a culture survey tool, the results of which are used to maintain and improve our culture going forward. Motion has achieved the top fourth quartile for all categories.
Motion has not identified any risks of forced or child labour in its activities and operations.
Given that Motion has not identified any instances of child or forced labour in its own supply chains and operations, no steps were undertaken to eliminate the use of forced or child labour. As such, Motion has not identified any loss of income to the most vulnerable families resulting from any measures taken to eliminate the use of child or forced labour.
This being our inaugural report on modern slavery, we envision evolving our practices as they relate to modern slavery and human rights. We will continue to monitor our supply chain in relation to slavery and human trafficking through our regular reviews of our own suppliers.
In 2024, in addition to the Sustainability Team’s regular reviews of Motion’s labour and human rights policies, we will increase our efforts in assessing the effectiveness of ensuring that forced labour and child labour are not being used in our activities and supply chains.
Further, we plan to implement responsible sourcing and human trafficking policies at Motion.
Finally, we are committing to introducing training programs during 2024 at on our obligations and responsibilities to mitigate modern slavery risk in our businesses and supply chains.
This statement was approved by the Board of Directors of Motion LP on May 31, 2024.