Canada Consumer Product Safety Act An Overview Graham Stewart Health Canada.
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Transcript of Canada Consumer Product Safety Act An Overview Graham Stewart Health Canada.
The Key Features of the Act
Definitions (section 2):
“consumer product”• Includes components, parts and accessories.• Attainable by individuals (not commercial products).
“danger to human health or safety” • Unreasonable hazards – existing or potential - during or as a
result of normal/foreseeable use.• Death or adverse effect on health (illness, injury, adverse
reactions) including acute and chronic effects.
The Key Features of the Act (cont’d.)
Definitions (cont’d):
“manufacture”• Produce, formulate, repackage and prepare.• Includes recondition for sale.
“sell”• Offer, expose or have in possession for sale.• With or without consideration.• Includes lease / rent.
Other definitions: “confidential business information”, “document”, “government”, etc.
The Key Features of the Act (cont’d.)Prohibitions (sections 5 – 11):• No person shall manufacture, import, advertise or sell
consumer products that are:– Prohibited as per Schedule 2; – Non-compliant with regulations;– General Prohibition on products that present “a danger to human
health or safety”;– Recalled or the subject of corrective measures that have not
been carried out; or,– That are the subject of false, misleading/deceptive claims
(relating to health and safety) including false certification marks.
• For those advertising and selling only, the last 3 prohibitions must have been done “knowingly”.
The Key Features of the Act (cont’d.)• Fines and Penalties:– Increased fines and penalties, including higher penalties where it
can be proved the contravention was done knowingly or recklessly.
– Administrative Monetary Penalties System (AMPs) for noncompliance with orders.
• Compliance and Enforcement:– Ability to enter and seize conveyances.– Suppliers can be required to move and store seized items at their
own expense.– Removal of “automatic” forfeiture after seizure – previous
provisions were deemed “unconstitutional”.– Suppliers can be required to pay for disposal upon forfeiture.
The Key Features of the Act (cont’d.)
• Minister (or her delegate) has the ability to require tests to verify compliance (section 12).
• Requirements to keep records of supplier and clients to allow traceability in the event of a recall, other record-keeping requirements can be added through regulation (section 13).
Mandatory Reporting (section 14)Purpose:• Creates a post-market surveillance system, aimed at early
detection of consumer product safety issues.
The mandatory reporting process is triggered where there is an occurrence involving:• A death or serious injury;• Defect, or characteristic that could lead to a death or
serious injury;• Incorrect or insufficient information ; or, • Recall or other measure that was initiated for human
health or safety reasons by another jurisdiction (including foreign entity).
Mandatory Reporting…continued
• All levels of the supply chain would be responsible for reporting incidents to the Health Canada.
• All levels of the supply chain would be responsible for reporting incidents to the Health Canada. 2 types of reporting are outlined in the legislation:– Incident information may be received from all levels of the
supply chain (retailer-distributors-manufacturers).– Further assessment of the risk would only be received from
manufacturers and importers.
Mandatory Reporting…continued
• Upon receipt of incident information, HC can:– Take immediate action. – Begin internal assessment of risk.– Wait for assessment from importer/manufacturer before
determining course of action.
• Failure to Report:– If a company fails to report, an inspectors’ order will be
issued to order the company to provide information.
Inspectors’ Orders (sections 30 and 31)
• Current situation under HPA:– No authority to order a recall or take corrective actions.– Heavy reliance on advisories, warnings and voluntary compliance.
• Inspectors’ Orders under CCPSA will allow Health Canada to:– To order a company to recall and / or take corrective action.– Make it an offence for a company if they fail to take corrective
action– Take action at the company’s expense.
• Step-wise Enforcement will still continue…– Information/education– Voluntary compliance– Mandatory compliance
Administrative Monetary Penalties Scheme (AMPS) (sections 46-61)• What is an Administrative Monetary Penalty Scheme?
– AMPS are civil penalties aimed at securing compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements.
– AMPS are a flexible and responsive alternative to criminal prosecution for non-compliance.
• Triggers:– Non-compliance with an inspectors’ order will trigger the AMPS
process – issuance of a Notice of Violation (NOV). • Compliance Agreement:
– Establishment has option to enter into a compliance agreement to take action to remedy the situation.
• Ministerial Review: request a review of the NOV on the grounds that:– an order has not been violated;– the penalty was not calculated properly.
Regulations (section 36)• “True” prohibitions from Part I, Scheduled I of the HPA are
listed in Schedule 2 any may be amended by regulation. • Other prohibitions are rewritten as regulations - stand-alone
or incorporated into existing – with the explicit authority to prohibit products in regulations.
• Allow exemptions.• Product, class-specific or generic requirements for the
manufacturing, etc of consumer products.• Ability to designate or recognize certification organizations.• Time and manner for providing documents.• Recall, measures and review.
Bill C-6 vs. US CPSIA
• Recalls (preliminary determination)• Mandatory Third Party Testing in Certain
Children’s Products and Certificates• Tracking labels• Import Safety• AMPS vs. US civil penalties• Lead and Phthalates (current regulatory
initiatives)
Questions?