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:
- 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;
- increasing the openness and transparency with respect to
the government's regulatory decision-making which
would include more information sharing;
- substantially increasing fines and jail terms;
- increasing authorities to monitor and prevent unsafe
products from entering the Canadian marketplace;
- enabling Health Canada to develop regulations requiring a
mandatory adverse drug reaction reporting requirement for
Canadian health care institutions; and
- 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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