Miscellaneous Federal Statutes
| Author | Mohan Prabhu |
| Pages | 429-487 |
A | The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act
429
Chapter 6
Miscellaneous Federal Statutes
This chapter covers nine from among a number of Federal statutes that pri-
marily regulate domestic trade; commerce; and human, animal and plant
health, but for the purpose of a seamless regulatory system, they also cover
exports and imports. The regulatory system is touched upon incidentally
since it would be straying beyond the scope of this book, which is to give a
broad picture of export and import control regulation.
The nine statutes, in alphabetical order, are the Canada Consumer Prod-
uct Safety Act, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, the Consumer
Packaging and Labelling Act, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the
Health of Animals Act, the Pest Control Products Act, the Plant Protection Act,
the Precious Metals Marking Act, and the Textile Labelling Act.
A. THE CANADA CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY ACT1
1) Introduction
The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPS Act) was enacted in 2010. It
amends the Hazardous Products Act,2 which is now limited in its applicaton
to controlled products or hazardous products listed in Schedule II and the
Regulations that prescribe the goods set out in that Schedule. Those goods
fall into six categories, namely compressed gas, flammable and combust-
ible material, oxidizing material, poisonous or infectious material, corrosive
1 SC 2010, c 21.
2 RSC 1985, c H-3.
CANADA’S LAWS ON IMPORT AND EXPORT
A | The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act
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material, and dangerously reactive material. Importation of those goods
must be accompanied by the prescribed hazardous material safety informa-
tion data. The Hazardous Products Act ceases to apply to consumer products
as defined in the CCPS Act, but the regulatory structure, including the pro-
hibitions against importations without the appropriate material safety data
sheets, and the enforcement and offence sections, are generally the same in
the two statutes.
The CCPS Act applies to all consumer products except those listed in
Schedule 1 to the Act. Tobacco products are included only in respect of their
ignition propensity. The items listed in Schedule 1 are also controlled by
other legislation, such as the Criminal Code, the Controlled Drugs and Sub-
stances Act, the Canada Shipping Act, the Explosives Act, the Feeds Act, the Fer-
tilizers Act, the Food and Drugs Act, the Health of Animals Act, the Pest Control
Products Act, the Plant Protection Act, and the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, some
of which are covered below in this chapter.
2) Purpose, Definitions, and Application
The stated purpose of the CCPS Act is to protect the public by addressing or
preventing dangers to human health or safety that are posed by consumer
products in Canada, including those that circulate within Canada and those
that are imported.
The expression “danger to human health or safety” is defined by section
2 of the Act as
any unreasonable hazard—existing or potential—that is posed by a con-
sumer product during or as a result of its normal or foreseeable use and
that may reasonably be expected to cause the death of an individual ex-
posed to it or have an adverse effect on that individual’s health—including
an injury—whether or not the death or adverse effect occurs immediately
after the exposure to the hazard, and includes any exposure to a consumer
product that may reasonably be expected to have a chronic adverse effect
on human health.
Section 2 defines a “consumer product” as
a product, including its components, parts or accessories, that may reason-
ably be expected to be obtained by an individual to be used for non-com-
mercial purposes, including for domestic, recreational and sports purposes,
and includes its packaging.
Chapter 6: Miscellaneous Federal Statutes
A | The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act
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The Act and the Regulations prescribed under its authority apply to any
article that is
1) a consumer product;
2) anything used in the manufacturing, importation, packaging, storing,
advertising, selling, labelling, testing, or transportation of a consumer
product; or
3) a document that is related to any of the above activities or a consumer
product.
Many of the Regulations enacted under the Hazardous Products Act were re-
pealed when the CCPS Act was enacted, but others, namely, those relating to
carpets, cellulose insulation, charcoal, expansion gates and expandable en-
closures, infant feeding bottle nipples, matches, mattresses, and tents were
re-enacted under the new Act.
3) Prohibitions
Sections 5 to 9 enumerate the prohibitions. It is an offence against sections 5
and 6 to manufacture, import, advertise, or sell a consumer product listed in
Schedule 2 to the Act, or to do these things with respect to consumer prod-
ucts that do not meet the requirements set out in the Regulations.
Schedule 2 contains a list of fifteen items, from Jequirity beans, certain
types of baby walkers, baby bottles, baby bottle nipples, pacifiers, and kites,
to sneezing powders and textile fibre products that contain trisphosphate.
Section 7 prohibits the manufacturing, importing, advertising, or sell-
ing of a consumer product that is
1) a danger to human health or safety;
2) the subject of a recall order under section 31 or of a voluntary recall in
Canada because the product is a danger to human health or safety; or
3) the subject of a measure that the manufacturer or importer has not
carried out as required by an order issued under section 32 by Industry
Canada, or such an order that is reviewed under section 35.
The advertising or sale of a consumer product that is a danger to human
health or safety or that is subject to a recall order is prohibited by section
8. Packaging or labelling a consumer product in a manner that is false, mis-
leading, or deceptive is prohibited by section 9.
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