Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA)

Compliance with Health Canada’s new Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA) came into force June 20, 2011.

The CCPSA updates the antiquated Hazardous Products Act (HPA) in order to better protect consumers from potential or actual dangers to their health or safety caused by consumer products. It also grants the Canadian government the authority to order recalls on unsafe products.  

The CCPSA features the following key requirements for Canadian manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers:

• Product Testing and Documentation – the government may require testing to validate safety and compliance, conducted either by the responsible party, a third-party laboratory or by the government, as well as proof of testing upon request
• Recordkeeping – records are to be retained for at least six years after the year to which they relate unless regulations specify another time period, including name and address of the manufacturer, information about where the product is sold and batch coding details for traceability purposes
• Mandatory Reporting – the manufacturer, importer or seller must inform Health Canada and the company from which the product was procured of a reportable health/safety incident or recall within two calendar days, as well as provide Health Canada with a incident report within 10 days