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FederalDid not become law (session ended)40th Parliament, 2nd Session

Bill C-6 explained in plain English

An Act respecting the safety of consumer products

Federal Parliament bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.

At a glance

Jurisdiction
Federal Parliament
Legislature / Parliament
Parliament of Canada
Session
40th Parliament, 2nd Session
Bill number
Bill C-6
Full title
An Act respecting the safety of consumer products
Current status
Did not become law (session ended)
Latest event
At consideration in the House of Commons of amendments made by the Senate
Last updated
Dec 15, 2009

Official Parliament of Canada snapshot for 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. MP vote breakdowns appear when the House of Commons publishes a recorded division export for that bill. Senate and House stage details include official debate/sitting links when LEGISinfo publishes them.

Chamber
Parliament of Canada
Current Stage
At consideration in the House of Commons of amendments made by the Senate
Latest Activity
Dec 15, 2009
Plain-language explanation
In plain English (our explanation)

Our plain-language take, written for civic education.

Source: By PoliticalData.ca

AI-assisted, reviewed before publishing
Short Version

Bill C-6 creates the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, a modernized federal law to protect public health and safety by regulating consumer products through prohibitions, testing requirements, incident reporting, inspector powers, and enforcement mechanisms including recalls and penalties.

What It Means

Bill C-6 creates a new law called the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act that modernizes the federal system for protecting Canadians from dangerous consumer products. The bill replaces an older system with comprehensive rules for manufacturing, importing, selling, advertising, packaging, and labelling consumer products. It sets up mechanisms to identify and prevent dangers to human health or safety posed by consumer products. The bill creates prohibitions against selling dangerous products, requires manufacturers and importers to test and document their products, and sets out duties for reporting incidents involving consumer products. It establishes powers for inspectors to enter premises, seize products, and order recalls. The bill also creates administrative monetary penalties for violations of inspector orders, and criminal offences for contraventions of the Act. The bill makes consequential amendments to the Hazardous Products Act.

What This Bill Does
  • Creates the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act to modernize the regulatory regime for consumer products
  • Establishes prohibitions on manufacturing, importing, selling, or advertising dangerous consumer products
  • Prohibits products listed in Schedule 2 from being manufactured, imported, sold, or advertised
  • Prohibits products that do not meet regulatory requirements from being manufactured, imported, sold, or advertised
  • Requires manufacturers and importers to conduct tests and studies on consumer products when ordered by the Minister
  • Requires manufacturers, importers, and sellers to maintain documents about the products for six years and make them available to the Minister
  • Requires manufacturers, importers, and sellers to report incidents to the Minister within two days of becoming aware of them, and manufacturers or importers to provide written reports within 10 days
  • Allows the Minister to disclose personal information and confidential business information for purposes of health and safety protection
  • Designates inspectors with authority to enter places, examine products, seize items, and take samples for analysis
  • Allows inspectors to order manufacturers and importers to recall dangerous products
  • Allows inspectors to order persons to take measures to remedy non-compliance with the Act or regulations
  • Establishes a review process where persons can request review of inspector orders by a review officer
  • Allows the court to issue injunctions to prevent offences under the Act
  • Establishes regulations-making authority for the Governor in Council to set safety standards and requirements
  • Allows the Minister to make interim emergency orders for immediate health and safety dangers
  • Creates criminal offences for contraventions of the Act with maximum penalties of up to $5 million and two years imprisonment for indictable offences
  • Creates administrative monetary penalties for violations of inspector orders with maximum penalties of $25,000 for most cases and $5,000 for non-profit organizations
  • Allows compliance agreements as an alternative to payment of administrative penalties
  • Establishes a minister review process for administrative penalty disputes
  • Exempts explosives, food, drugs, cosmetics, motor vehicles, and certain other regulated products from the Act
  • Applies the Act to tobacco products only with respect to ignition propensity
  • Does not apply the Act to natural health products
  • Makes consequential amendments to the Hazardous Products Act
Who Is Affected
  • Manufacturers of consumer products for commercial purposes
  • Importers of consumer products for commercial purposes
  • Sellers and retailers of consumer products
  • Persons who advertise consumer products
  • Persons who package or label consumer products
  • Consumers who use consumer products
  • Foreign manufacturers exporting products to Canada
  • Government agencies and foreign governments involved in product safety
Rights, Duties, Or Obligations
  • Manufacturers and importers must not manufacture, import, sell, or advertise consumer products that are dangerous to human health or safety
  • Manufacturers and importers must not manufacture, import, sell, or advertise products that are subject to recall orders or voluntary recalls
  • Manufacturers and importers must not sell or advertise products that do not meet regulatory requirements
  • Manufacturers and importers must conduct tests and studies on products when ordered by the Minister
  • Manufacturers, importers, sellers, and persons who test products must maintain documents about the products for six years
  • Manufacturers, importers, and sellers must report incidents to the Minister within two days of becoming aware of them
  • Manufacturers or importers must provide written incident reports to the Minister within 10 days
  • No person shall obstruct an inspector or make false or misleading statements to an inspector
  • Owners of places must give inspectors all reasonable assistance during inspections
  • Inspectors may enter places (except dwelling-houses without consent or warrant) to verify compliance with the Act
  • Inspectors may examine products, take samples, seize items, and analyze products
  • Persons can request review of inspector orders within seven days by a review officer
  • The Minister may publish information about contraventions for compliance purposes
  • Persons named in notices of violation have the right to pay the penalty, request a compliance agreement, or request a review by the Minister
  • Persons have the right to know their rights and obligations when issued a notice of violation
Important Dates
  • Commencement date to be set by order of the Governor in Council (not specified in the bill)
Financial Or Tax Impacts
  • Maximum criminal fines of up to $5,000,000 for indictable offences and $500,000 for summary conviction offences
  • Maximum administrative monetary penalties of $25,000 per violation (or $5,000 for non-profit organizations)
  • Expenses incurred by inspectors in carrying out recalls or measures can be recovered as debts from the person who failed to comply with an inspector order
  • Seized items can be disposed of at the owner's expense
  • Storage and transportation costs for seized items may be borne by the owner
Enforcement Or Penalties
  • Criminal offence for contraventions of the Act (except sections 8, 10, 11, or 19) punishable by up to $5,000,000 fine and/or two years imprisonment on indictment, or up to $250,000 fine and/or six months imprisonment on first summary conviction, or up to $500,000 fine and/or 18 months imprisonment on subsequent summary conviction
  • Criminal offence for contraventions of sections 8, 10, 11, or 19 or knowingly/recklessly violating other provisions punishable by unlimited fine and/or up to five years imprisonment on indictment, or up to $500,000 fine and/or 18 months imprisonment on first summary conviction, or up to $1,000,000 fine and/or two years imprisonment on subsequent summary conviction
  • Administrative monetary penalties of up to $25,000 for violations of inspector orders (or $5,000 for non-profit organizations)
  • Directors, officers, agents, or mandataries of corporations can be held personally liable for offences committed by the corporation
  • Employers can be held liable for violations committed by employees or agents
  • Continuing offences result in a separate offence for each day of continuation
  • Seized items can be forfeited to the Crown
  • Failure to comply with compliance agreements results in doubling of the penalty
  • Prosecution for summary conviction offences must be commenced within two years of the Minister becoming aware of the acts or omissions
  • Violations must be brought within six months of the Minister becoming aware of the acts or omissions
Uncertainties Or Limits
  • The bill does not specify which products will be added to or removed from Schedule 2 (the list of prohibited products) — these decisions are left to future regulations made by the Governor in Council
  • The bill does not specify which safety standards or requirements will apply to consumer products — these are to be determined by regulations
  • The exact commencement date of the Act is not provided in the bill; it will be set by order of the Governor in Council
  • The bill does not specify the amount of administrative penalties for violations — these will be set by regulations within maximum limits of $25,000 (or $5,000 for non-profit organizations)
  • The bill does not specify which documents importers must provide to the Minister at the time of importation — these are to be specified in regulations
  • The bill does not provide details on the composition or mandate of the advisory committee beyond general language about labelling and administration
  • The bill does not specify criteria for what constitutes a 'serious and imminent danger' beyond requiring the Minister's belief that immediate action is necessary
  • It is unclear how long the Minister's interim emergency orders can remain in effect before being replaced by permanent regulations
Laws Or Regulations Affected
Hazardous Products Act
amended

Definitions of 'controlled product' and 'hazardous product' are amended, Part I is repealed, Schedule I is repealed, and paragraph 12(f) is replaced to reference the new Canada Consumer Product Safety Act

Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.

Official text
Official summary
Official summary (Parliament of Canada)

The official summary published alongside the bill, shown exactly as written.

Source: Parliament of Canada (LEGISinfo)

Third-party sourceView on LEGISinfo

A legislative summary is currently being prepared for this bill by the Parliamentary Information and Research Service of the Library of Parliament. Meanwhile, the following executive summary is available. On 29 January 2009, the Minister of Health introduced Bill C-6, An Act respecting the safety of consumer products (the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act), in the House of Commons and it was given first reading. This bill is designed to repeal and replace Part I of the Hazardous Products Act, creating a new system to regulate consumer products that pose, or might reasonably be expected to pose, a danger to human health and safety. Bill C-6: • prohibits the sale, manufacture, import and advertisement of certain listed products and provides for testing and evaluation of consumer products; • makes it mandatory for manufacturers, importers, and sellers of consumer products to report dangerous incidents associated with these products to the Minister of Health; • obliges manufacturers, importers and sellers of consumer products to report product or labelling defects that result, or might reasonably be expected to result, in death or serious adverse effects on health, including serious injury, to the Minister of Health; • requires manufacturers, importers and sellers of consumer products to report recalls of consumer products initiated by governments and government institutions in Canada or elsewhere to the Minister of Health; • provides for the inspection and seizure of consumer products for the purpose of verifying compliance or non-compliance with the bill’s provisions; • empowers the federal government to institute interim and permanent recalls of products that pose, or might reasonably be expected to pose, a danger to human health or safety; and • establishes both criminal and administrative penalties for those who violate the CCPSA or orders made under it.

This is the official summary published by the Parliament of Canada, shown verbatim. Not legal advice. PoliticalData.ca did not write or edit this text.

View on LEGISinfo

Parliamentary Process

Step 1
First reading
Jun 16, 2009
Completed

This artifact documents the Senate's procedural progression of Bill C-6, An Act respecting the safety of consumer products, through its readings and committee stages, culminating in its transmission to the House of Commons with Senate amendments.

First reading, Jun 16, 2009
End of stage activity, Jun 16, 2009
Chamber sittings
First reading - Jun 16, 2009

On June 16, 2009, the Senate sat for tributes, statements on various topics, tabled reports, debated government actions and bills, introduced Bill C-6, authorized committee meetings, and adjourned debate on multiple items.

Step 2
Second reading
Oct 7, 2009
Completed

Bill C-6, concerning consumer product safety, has completed its passage through the Senate and has been sent to the House of Commons for consideration of Senate amendments.

Second reading, Oct 7, 2009
Referral to committee, Oct 7, 2009
End of stage activity, Oct 7, 2009
Chamber sittings
Debate at second reading - Jun 23, 2009

During a Senate sitting on June 23, 2009, tributes were paid to retiring senators, questions were asked on various national issues, and legislative business proceeded, including the adjourned second reading debate of Bill C-6, the Canada Consumer Product Safety Bill.

On June 23, 2009, the Senate debated and passed multiple bills, began consideration of Bill C-6 on consumer product safety, granted honorary citizenship to the Aga Khan, adopted committee reports, and adjourned.

Debate at second reading - Sep 16, 2009

During a Senate sitting on September 16, 2009, the debate on Bill C-6, an act respecting consumer product safety, continued, with senators raising concerns about its intrusiveness and potential impact on businesses, while other matters including tributes and topical discussions were also addressed.

During a Senate sitting on September 16, 2009, senators debated Bill C-6 regarding consumer product safety, raising concerns about its extensive powers and potential impact on due process, while also addressing other procedural matters and appointments.

Debate at second reading - Oct 7, 2009

During a Senate sitting on October 7, 2009, Bill C-6, concerning consumer product safety, was debated at second reading and referred to committee, with senators raising procedural concerns about inspector powers and confidentiality.

Step 3
Consideration in committee
Dec 3, 2009
Completed

Bill C-6, concerning consumer product safety, reached the stage of Senate committee consideration, which was completed on December 3, 2009, after which the Senate sent messages with amendments to the House of Commons.

Committee report presented with amendments, Dec 3, 2009
End of stage activity, Dec 3, 2009
Chamber sittings
Committee report presented with amendments - Dec 3, 2009

On December 3, 2009, the Senate observed a moment of silence for the victims of the École Polytechnique tragedy, heard a question of privilege, received committee reports including one on Bill C-6, and debated various other matters before adjourning.

Step 4
Report stage
Dec 9, 2009
Completed

The Senate completed its report and third reading stages for Bill C-6, adopting seven amendments, and then sent a message to the House of Commons regarding these amendments.

Committee report defeated, Dec 9, 2009
End of stage activity, Dec 9, 2009
Chamber sittings
Debate at consideration of committee report - Dec 8, 2009

On December 8, 2009, the Senate debated and deferred votes on several bills including Bill C-6 (consumer product safety), Bill C-15 (controlled drugs), and Bill C-27 (electronic commerce protection), while also addressing procedural points and tabling committee reports.

Debate at consideration of committee report - Dec 9, 2009

On December 9, 2009, the Senate held tributes for Senator Jerahmiel S. Grafstein, debated various bills including the defeat of a motion related to Bill C-6, and adopted a report on Bill C-15.

Step 5
Third reading
Dec 15, 2009
Completed

On December 15, 2009, the Senate concluded its third reading of Bill C-6 and sent a message to the House of Commons regarding Senate amendments.

Third reading, Dec 15, 2009
End of stage activity, Dec 15, 2009
Chamber sittings
Debate at third reading - Dec 10, 2009

During a Senate sitting on December 10, 2009, the third reading debate on Bill C-6, the Canada Consumer Product Safety Bill, was suspended and later adjourned after extensive debate and the introduction of several amendments concerning inspector powers and privacy rights.

Debate at third reading - Dec 15, 2009

During the third reading debate of Bill C-6 in the Senate, senators discussed amendments related to inspection powers, privacy, and child safety, ultimately passing the bill with amendments.

Step 1
First reading
Jan 29, 2009
Completed

This artifact outlines the procedural progression of Bill C-6 through the House of Commons and Senate, culminating in the House of Commons considering Senate amendments.

Introduction and first reading, Jan 29, 2009
End of stage activity, Jan 29, 2009
Chamber sittings
Introduction and first reading - Jan 29, 2009

Bill C-6, "An Act respecting the safety of consumer products," was introduced and given first reading in the House of Commons.

Step 2
Second reading
Apr 30, 2009
Completed

This record details the House of Commons' progression through second reading for Bill C-6, its passage to the Senate, and its subsequent return to the House for consideration of Senate amendments.

Second reading and referral to committee, Apr 30, 2009
End of stage activity, Apr 30, 2009
Chamber sittings
Debate at second reading - Apr 29, 2009

This House of Commons sitting record details the continuation of the second reading debate for Bill C-6, An Act respecting the safety of consumer products, with various procedural matters and member statements also occurring.

Debate at second reading - Apr 30, 2009

On April 30, 2009, Members of Parliament debated Bill C-6 concerning consumer product safety, discussing its proposed changes and potential shortcomings before referring it to committee.

Step 3
Consideration in committee
Jun 8, 2009
Completed

This record tracks the legislative journey of Bill C-6, An Act respecting the safety of consumer products, detailing its progress through the House of Commons and Senate, with a focus on its consideration after Senate amendments were introduced.

Committee report presented, Jun 8, 2009
End of stage activity, Jun 8, 2009
Chamber sittings
Committee report presented - Jun 8, 2009

The House of Commons convened on June 8, 2009, for a sitting that included debates on multiple pieces of legislation and statements by members on diverse topics, with the provided text serving as a transcript of these proceedings.

Step 4
Report stage
Jun 10, 2009
Completed

The House of Commons completed its Report stage for Bill C-6 on June 10, 2009, and later considered messages from the Senate regarding amendments, with the bill proceeding to third reading on December 15, 2009.

Concurrence at report stage, Jun 10, 2009
End of stage activity, Jun 10, 2009
Chamber sittings
Concurrence at report stage - Jun 10, 2009

During a House of Commons sitting on June 10, 2009, members debated and advanced Bill C-6 (Canada Consumer Product Safety Act) at report stage, alongside discussions on the medical isotope crisis and other policy matters.

Step 5
Third reading
Jun 10, 2009
Not completed

The House of Commons was considering amendments made by the Senate to Bill C-6, an Act respecting the safety of consumer products, as of December 15, 2009.

Chamber sittings
Debate at third reading - Jun 10, 2009

This House of Commons Hansard record from June 10, 2009, details the debate and procedural steps taken on Bill C-6, An Act respecting the safety of consumer products, as it moved through report stage and towards third reading after amendments from the Senate.

Step 6
Report stage
Jun 10, 2009
Not completed

The House of Commons completed its Report stage for Bill C-6 on June 10, 2009, and later considered messages from the Senate regarding amendments, with the bill proceeding to third reading on December 15, 2009.

Chamber sittings
Debate at report stage - Jun 10, 2009

During a House of Commons sitting on June 10, 2009, members debated and advanced Bill C-6 (Canada Consumer Product Safety Act) at report stage, alongside discussions on the medical isotope crisis and other policy matters.

Step 7
Third reading
Jun 12, 2009
Completed

The House of Commons was considering amendments made by the Senate to Bill C-6, an Act respecting the safety of consumer products, as of December 15, 2009.

Third reading, Jun 12, 2009
End of stage activity, Jun 12, 2009
Chamber sittings
Debate at third reading - Jun 12, 2009

The House of Commons concluded the third reading and passed Bill C-6, an Act respecting the safety of consumer products, following further debate.

Debate and sitting links point to official parliamentary sources when LEGISinfo publishes them. Any plain-language discussion summaries should be generated from those official texts and reviewed before public display.

Vote Summary

No published recorded division

This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.

Sponsor
Leona Aglukkaq
Sponsor party or district not listed
Jurisdiction
Federal Parliament

No published representative vote breakdown

This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.

Official sources

Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.

How this data is sourced