Canada Gets Serious About Consumer-Product Safety

(Law.com – Peter Pliszka and Richard Butler, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin)

Manufacturers, importers, retailers and advertisers that sell products in Canada can expect to see a flurry of regulatory change relating to consumer products later this year. The activity – culminating in House of Commons Bill C-6, "An Act respecting the safety of consumer products" – stems from an increased focus by the Canadian government on the regulatory controls for consumer products.

Bill C-6, known colloquially as the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA), was introduced in Canada's House of Commons on January 29. If enacted into law as drafted, the CCPSA will reconstitute the federal organization Health Canada as a powerful regulator of consumer products, providing it with unprecedented authority to inspect and influence the supply chain for consumer goods.

The legislation currently governing consumer product safety in Canada is the federal Hazardous Products Act (HPA). Health Canada, the country's public health agency, is responsible for administration and enforcement of the HPA and its regulations, through its Product Safety Program. […]

The regulatory tools conferred upon Health Canada by the HPA are limited because they apply only to the list of products that fall within the scope of the HPA, and the powers are reactive in nature. At present, the HPA does not confer upon Health Canada any legislated authority to compel parties in the supply chain to initiate product recalls. Therefore, Health Canada must rely on the cooperation of private parties with respect to consumer product recalls.

As the Canadian government's vehicle for delivering an overhaul of consumer product regulation in Canada, the new CCPSA will repeal and replace Part I of the HPA. The CCPSA will apply to all "consumer products," other than exceptional products prescribed by regulation.

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