NEW Canada Consumer Product Safety Act

Product safety is in everyone's best interest. With the new Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA), industry and government are partnering together to improve the safety of products made available to Canadians.

Effective June 20, 2011, the CCPSA will introduce new requirements for industry that will help protect Canadians from unsafe consumer products.

The CCPSA will cover a wide variety of consumer products including children's toys and equipment; children's jewellery; textiles; household products; and sporting goods. Items such as natural health products, food, cosmetics and drugs will not be covered under this new Act.

How Businesses Will Be Affected
Several measures that are clearly defined in the Act will impact both large and small businesses across Canada.  New key obligations include:

I.  MANDATORY REPORTING

Businesses will be required to report to Health Canada any incident related to health and safety caused by a consumer product. This will provide the government with timely information about important product safety issues.  

II. RECORD RETENTION

Retailers will be required to keep records that provide enough details to know which suppliers they purchased products from and also where and when (but not to whom) products were sold.

Other suppliers who manufacture, import, advertise, sell or test consumer products will be required to keep records to indicate from whom they obtained the product and the businesses to whom they sold it.

These records would be kept by businesses as part of any regular bookkeeping practices and will help to trace products throughout the supply chain should the need arise. 

To sign up for CCPSA updates and learn more about the new requirements of the Act, visit www.HealthCanada.gc.ca/ProductSafety