M-401 Conflict-free minerals

That, in the opinion of the House, the government should: (a) develop a strategy to require Canadian industries that manufacture products that contain tin, tantalum, tungsten, or gold, and companies selling products containing one or more of these elements in Canada’s markets, to ensure transparency in their supply chains for minerals from which these elements are extracted to determine whether or not their products contain conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by (i) tracing back through their supply chains and submitting an annual report to the appropriate governmental body to determine the source of these minerals and, if the source is found to be in the DRC or an adjoining country, providing additional reporting that determines the mine of origin for such minerals and a description of the measures taken to exercise due diligence on the source and supply chain of such minerals to ensure that the purchase of such minerals did not benefit armed groups in the DRC or an adjoining country, (ii) obtaining an independent private sector audit of this reporting to provide independent verification; and (b) explore charging an independent monitoring body with a mandate to certify products that have been determined to be “DRC conflict-free” and encourage that all products containing tin, tantalum, tungsten or gold that have been found to be “DRC conflict-free” include a label indicating such, in order for consumers to know at the point of purchase which products are certifiably not fueling armed conflict in the DRC.