The new CCPSA will have a substantial impact on the apparel marketplace as it imposes new requirements on most apparel suppliers and allows the Canadian Government to compel firms to recall merchandise deemed to be unsafe.

In late May and early June Health Canada hosted a series of information sessions in different cities to explain the new legislation. Predictably the sessions were oversubscribed and Health Canada is in the process of rescheduling additional sessions. We recommend members attend these sessions if possible.

The Canadian Apparel Federation has hosted one webinar on this topic – a taped version of which is available in our online store. When this was presented some of the guidance documents on different aspects of the legislation were not available in their final form. These are now available and there will be one additional webinar during the week of July 4 when we will update members on those provisions.  Also early in July we will present an update on US product safety issues including both national regulations and state-level initiatives such as proposition 65 [California].

The CCPSA creates new obligations on manufacturers, importers and retailers in terms of mandatory reporting of product safety incidents and record keeping requirements among others.

While the Canadian Apparel Federation welcomes the updating of product safety legislation in Canada there will be a period of adjustment for many players in the supply chain. In particular we are concerned that the scope of the incident reporting requirement is so broad that there will be a tendency for retailers to "over-report" product safety incidents.

We encourage all companies to read information contained on the Health Canada website, including: 

Record Keeping Requirements under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act

Mandatory Incident Reporting

CCPSA Information for Retailers