In January, online activism over the problems created by new American safety legislation prompted by the many recalls of childrens’ products reached a peak. The more I read about the unintended consequences of the US’s new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, the worse it gets for professional crafters, small businesses, used booksellers and public libraries, antique dealers, charities that rely on clothing and toy donations and sales, and parents trying to raise their kids within a small budget or within their noncommercial and/or environmental ideals. Not to mention the environment: all the products that can no longer be sold are being sent to landfills or burned in incinerators. Reportedly, many cottage-industry businesses are shutting down entirely due to the onerous requirements for lead and phthalate testing… not exactly the stimulus package the shaky American economy needs. Small Canadian businesses trying to export their products to the US are also affected by this legislation. TheSmartMama.com (written by a lawyer who is doing X-ray diffraction analysis of products for compliance with CPSIA) remains one of the best places to look for updated information about CPSIA’s requirements, amendments, and the issues it’s causing. Most of these issues have not been resolved, although the US Consumer Product Safety Commission is doing its best to answer questions, and it seems that amendments to the act may be on the way.

Following this story, naturally I wondered whether Bill C-6 (CCPSA, the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act), the successor to Canada’s Bill C-52 (not Bill C-51 as some alternative media have claimed), has the same problems as CPSIA? It’ll depend how the safety testing requirements are worded, in the end, and whether there are any exemptions put in place. Bill C-6 had its first reading in the Commons and is currently at committee. The current wording is available to read here. I’m no lawyer, but here’s how it looks to me:

- Exemptions are listed in Schedule 1, and mostly cover products covered by other legislation (such as foods, cosmetics, drugs, motor vehicles, firearms, and so on). There is no exemption or grandfather clause that I could find that exempts items produced before a certain date, so in theory the act would apply to used, vintage, and antique items.

- The wording of Section 12 indicates that testing of products (for, say, banned chemical content) may be ordered at the discretion of the Minister, so there is some wiggle room for the Act to be interpreted by federal officials as not applying to, say, homemade handcrafted items.

- Here’s the crucial bit: The regulations in Section 36 explain specifically that the Governor in Council (ie, the Governor General signing orders from Federal Ministers) may create regulations that exempt a class of consumer products or a group of people, the nature of the documentation required, etc, and how technical reference documents (such as those that set the limits for lead and phthalate content in children’s products) can be incorporated into the Act. So, provision is made for creating exemptions, prohibitions, and technical references later; it’s not clear to me when in the process this happens.

I imagine that existing federal specs and testing procedure guidelines will apply, but I’m not sure where to find this information, so I have no idea how the testing protocols and documentation requirements currently or will compare to the CPSIA regulations. My concern is that, generally speaking, these sort of regulations are written to ensure the best possible fit with the American regulations, so that industries do not need to meet multiple standards. We will need to stay vigilant to ensure that Canadian legislators do not repeat the mistakes made on Capitol Hill in drafting the CPSIA.

It surprises me that American bloggers have covered this issue in depth, and that Canadians have been so quiet. I’d love to know: how has the CPSIA affected your business? Are you concerned about Bill C-6?