Legislation to enact the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act and complementary amendments to the Food and Drugs Act, two key components of Canada's new Food and Consumer Product Safety Action Plan, was tabled in the House of Commons earlier this month.

The Food and Consumer Product Safety Action Plan, announced by Prime Minister Harper in December, 2007, proposes a series of initiatives to modernize and strengthen Canada's safety system for food, health and consumer products. Principal plan elements include:

  • emphasizing industry's responsibility to provide safe products;

  • mandatory reporting requirements;

  • new and stronger authorities to enable Canada to take appropriate action with respect to unsafe products;

  • significantly increasing penalties for offending companies;

  • more and better information for the public and decision-makers on products; and

  • improving the safety of imported products.

Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA)

Intended, in part, to replace Part I of the Hazardous Products Act, the CPSA will generally apply to all Canadian consumer products, whether imported or domestically manufactured. Certain products, such as food, cosmetics and drugs, the sale of which is governed by other federal legislation, will not be covered by the CPSA.

In addition to a general prohibition against the manufacture, importation, advertisement and sale of consumer products that are a danger to human health or safety, the CPSA will include provision for:

  • increased maximum criminal fines of up to $5,000,000;

  • the introduction, as an alternative to criminal prosecution, of an administrative monetary penalty scheme;

  • mandated safety tests and results disclosure to Health Canada;

  • required notification to Health Canada and others of reports of serious adverse incidents/defects;

  • the power to pull unsafe consumer products from store shelves;

  • the power to institute mandatory recalls and other corrective measures; and

  • mandatory supplier record keeping.

Amendments to the Food and Drugs Act (FDA)

Amendments to the FDA, many of which correspond to provisions of the proposed CPSA, form the second cornerstone to the Food and Consumer Product Safety Action Plan. Principal provisions in the bill include:

  1. extending the product safety cycle from confirming the safety and efficacy of products before they are approved for sale to include requiring manufacturers to demonstrate that products remain safe and effective following their introduction to the marketplace;

  2. increasing the openness and transparency with respect to the government's regulatory decision-making which would include more information sharing;

  3. substantially increasing fines and jail terms;

  4. increasing authorities to monitor and prevent unsafe products from entering the Canadian marketplace;

  5. enabling Health Canada to develop regulations requiring a mandatory adverse drug reaction reporting requirement for Canadian health care institutions; and

  6. empowering Health Canada to direct mandatory health product recalls.

In connection with the tabling of the two bills, Prime Minister Harper said "Today's action on consumer safety is good news for Canada. It will improve our safety and our health, make Canadian brands more competitive among global consumers, and boost confidence at home as a country whose product safety standards are second to none." The personal involvement of the Prime Minister in this product safety initiative and the fact that the government has moved as quickly as it has to introduce legislation following its December announcement suggest that these two bills may be on a fast track for enactment.

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