Canada Consumer Product Safety Act

Canada Consumer Product Safety Act
Parliament of Canada
Long title An Act respecting the safety of consumer products
Citation	S.C. 2010, c. 21
Considered by	House of Commons of Canada
Considered by	Senate of Canada
Legislative history
First chamber: House of Commons of Canada
Introduced by	Leona Aglukkaq MP, Minister of Health
First reading	June 9, 2010
Second reading	October 7, 2010
Third reading	October 29, 2010
Second chamber: Senate of Canada
Member(s) in charge	Yonah Martin
First reading	November 2, 2010
Second reading	November 18, 2010
Third reading	December 13, 2010
Status: Current legislation

The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (French: Loi canadienne sur la sécurité des produits de consommation) is an Act of the Parliament of Canada that passed into law on December 14, 2010. This law replaced Part I of the Hazardous Products Act.^[1] It was originally introduced in the 2nd session of the 39th Parliament of Canada as Bill C-52. It died in committee when the 2008 Canadian federal election was called, but was reintroduced in the second session of the 40th Parliament of Canada as Bill C-6 and was passed by both houses of Parliament but did not receive royal assent before Parliament was prorogued. It was introduced for a third time in the third session of the 40th Parliament as Bill C-36.

The legislative package amended the Hazardous Products Act (HPA) to regulate consumer products under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act. These bills are a result of increased consumer concern over consumer products, such as children's toys, which have been the subject of recalls over the past few years. Canada's Hazardous Products Act had not been updated in over 40 years. Canada's regulatory system has not kept pace with the global economy and increasing amounts of international trade. The Minister of Health, for example, currently doesn't have the power to force the recall of faulty or counterfeit products in Canada.

Health Canada consulted widely with industry and consumer groups over a period of several years before bringing forward the Consumer Product Safety Action Plan.^[2]

Health Canada regularly issues warnings, advisories and information updates to advise consumers of products on the market which contain toxic substances such as lead, mercury or arsenic; or are otherwise contaminated by dangerous and unhealthy substances. However under the previous legislation, the Minister of Health has no power to compel recall of these products. For example, Health Canada posted just over 300 recall notices in 2009. Roughly one third of these were for children's products. In 2009, about 1.5 million consumers were affected by crib recalls alone.

• Consumer Product Prohibitions and Regulations under the Proposed Canada Consumer Product Safety Act
• Consumer Product Safety Act
• Key Elements of the Proposed Canada Consumer Product Safety Act