Since February 17^th, 2009, there has been an inter­est­ing dis­cus­sion thread on the PSES’s EMC-​​PSTC list on the new Manufacturer’s Registry in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Since there was so much inter­est, I decided to try to sum­ma­rize things here.

Background

Ontario is the sec­ond old­est and the most pop­u­lous Province in Canada, with 12,160,282 peo­ple as of the 2006 cen­sus. Canada has 10 Provinces and three Territories. Ontario is Canada’s man­u­fac­tur­ing heart­land and is often a leader in new legislation.

ESA, or the Electrical Safety Authority as they are more prop­erly known, is the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) in the Province of Ontario, Canada. This means that they are autho­rized by the Government of Ontario to reg­u­late elec­tri­cal safety in the Province. ESA was for­merly the inspec­tion arm of Ontario Hydro, a crown cor­po­ra­tion dis­solved in 1998. ESA pro­vides build­ing and equip­ment elec­tri­cal inspec­tion ser­vices to the pub­lic and indus­try in the Province, and pub­lishes the Ontario Electrical Code. The Code is adapted directly from CSA’s Canadian Electrical Code — Part 1 (CSA C22.1), with Provincial deviations.

On 1-​​Aug-​​07, the Ministry of Small Business and Consumer Services filed Ontario Regulation 438/​07, Product Safety. This new reg­u­la­tion enables the Electrical Safety Authority to reg­u­late the safety of elec­tri­cal prod­ucts and equip­ment sold and used in Ontario.

The reg­u­la­tion was phased in to ensure that ESA and stake­hold­ers had enough time to develop tech­ni­cal guid­ance to sup­port the regulation.

• On 1-​​Oct-​​07 the sec­tions of the reg­u­la­tion that gov­ern approval of elec­tri­cal prod­ucts (cur­rently con­tained in the Ontario Electrical Safety Code) and that allow notice be given to the pub­lic of unsafe elec­tri­cal prod­ucts came into effect.
• On 1-​​Jan-​​08 other sec­tions relat­ing to ESA’s inves­tiga­tive and order-​​making pow­ers came into effect.
• On 1-​​Jul-​​08 sec­tions of the reg­u­la­tion requir­ing orga­ni­za­tions to report seri­ous elec­tri­cal inci­dents or defects came into effect.
• On 1-​​Apr-​​09 the Registry will open and man­u­fac­tur­ers can begin to reg­is­ter with ESA. For man­u­fac­tur­ers cur­rently sell­ing prod­ucts in Ontario, reg­is­tra­tions must be com­pleted by 30-​​Aug-​​09. This require­ment is cur­rently post­poned. For more infor­ma­tion, see this arti­cle. If your com­pany wants to begin sell­ing prod­ucts in Ontario, the com­pany must reg­is­ter before prod­ucts can be sold.

What is the Registry?

Recent Changes in the Ontario Electricity Act have increased the require­ments for report­ing of “seri­ous inci­dents” with elec­tri­cal ori­gins. These require­ments are found in Ontario Regulation 438 on Product Safety. In the past, sig­nif­i­cant num­bers of injuries caused by either unap­proved equip­ment, or fraud­u­lently marked equip­ment have occurred. When ESA has inves­ti­gated the equip­ment, they run into prob­lems with find­ing the orig­i­na­tor of the gear, and there­fore the per­son or com­pany who bears respon­si­bil­ity for the prob­lem. The new addi­tions to the reg­u­la­tion address this by requir­ing report­ing of severe injuries caused by elec­tri­cal equip­ment. In order to improve trace­abil­ity of elec­tri­cal prod­ucts sold in Ontario, ESA intro­duced the Manufacturer’s Registry, and made it manda­tory under their author­ity as the AHJ in Ontario. See the Ontario Regulation. Registration begins 1-​​Apr-​​09. Registration must be com­pleted by 30-​​Aug-​​09. The manda­tory Registration dead­line has been indef­i­nitely post­poned. A fee of $350 Canadian dol­lars must be paid in the first year, with a reduced fee in each fol­low­ing year.

Manufacturers of elec­tri­cal equip­ment for sale in Ontario are required to reg­is­ter with ESA, regard­less of whether they are located in Ontario or else­where. Failure to reg­is­ter will mean that cer­ti­fied or labeled elec­tri­cal prod­ucts will be deemed to be unap­proved and non-​​compliant with the Ontario Electrical Code. Under Regulation 438, it is ille­gal to sell, dis­play or use unap­proved elec­tri­cal prod­ucts [Section 5]. Under the Industrial Establishments reg­u­la­tions (part of the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act), it is ille­gal to use unap­proved elec­tri­cal prod­ucts in the work­place [Section 40]. Similar require­ments are also found in the Construction Regulations (Ontario Regulation 213, Section 185).

More infor­ma­tion on the Registry can be found on the ESA web site in the Product Safety area. There are a num­ber of FAQ’s avail­able from this page as well. They include:

• Manufacturers FAQ
• Import, Distribution, Wholesale and Retail Industry FAQ
• Product Safety Guidelines

The reg­is­tra­tion is per man­u­fac­turer and NOT per prod­uct, so once you have reg­is­tered your com­pany you do not need to re-​​register for every product.

Recognized elec­tri­cal safety marks

ESA pro­vides a list of all of the Certification and Inspection marks that are rec­og­nized in the province. As long as your prod­uct or the prod­ucts you are sell­ing bear one of these marks, the prod­uct can be dis­played, sold or used in the Province, pre­sum­ing the man­u­fac­turer is registered.

View the list of Recognized Marks and Field Evaluation Labels.

What is a ‘seri­ous incident’?

Regulation 438 defines a seri­ous inci­dent in Section 1:

“seri­ous elec­tri­cal inci­dent or acci­dent” means an elec­tri­cal inci­dent or acci­dent that,

(a) results in death or seri­ous injury to a person,

(b) has the poten­tial to cause death or a risk of seri­ous injury to a per­son, or

© causes or has the poten­tial to cause sub­stan­tial prop­erty damage.

Reporting Requirements

Once your com­pany has reg­is­tered with ESA, any seri­ous inci­dents occur­ring any­where you mar­ket your prod­ucts becomes reportable, but only for prod­ucts sold in Ontario.

Quoting from Regulation 438:

8. (1)  A man­u­fac­turer, whole­saler, importer, prod­uct dis­trib­u­tor or retailer that becomes aware of a seri­ous elec­tri­cal inci­dent or acci­dent or a defect in the design, con­struc­tion or func­tion­ing of an elec­tri­cal prod­uct or device that affects or is likely to affect the safety of any per­son or cause dam­age to prop­erty, shall report to the Authority as soon as prac­ti­ca­ble after becom­ing aware of the seri­ous elec­tri­cal inci­dent or acci­dent or defect.

(2)  A cer­ti­fi­ca­tion body or field eval­u­a­tion agency that becomes aware of a seri­ous elec­tri­cal inci­dent or acci­dent or a defect in the design, con­struc­tion or func­tion­ing of an elec­tri­cal prod­uct or device that was the sub­ject of a report given by the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion body or field eval­u­a­tion agency that affects or is likely to affect the safety of any per­son or cause dam­age to prop­erty shall report to the Authority as soon as prac­ti­ca­ble after becom­ing aware of the seri­ous elec­tri­cal inci­dent or acci­dent or defect.

There is more to Section 8 of the reg­u­la­tion than quoted. Additional sub­sec­tions include infor­ma­tion on what needs to be in the report and who needs to be involved in the inves­ti­ga­tion. If you need to make a report, check the rest of Section 8 first.

For exam­ple, say that your com­pany man­u­fac­tures a wid­get, Model 1523. Model 1523 is sold in the USA, Ontario Canada, Mexico and India. The com­pany also man­u­fac­tures a dif­fer­ent wid­get, Model 2000, sold in the USA and Mexico.

At some point, reports of elec­tri­cal shock and fires caused by Model 2000 start to come into your Product Safety depart­ment. Do you need to report this to ESA? NO — Model 2000 is not sold in Ontario, so severe inci­dents caused by that model do not require report­ing to ESA.

Model 1523 has a clean record, so no report­ing is required there. After man­u­fac­tur­ing Model 1523 for a few years, a key com­po­nent is changed for a cost reduced ver­sion from a dif­fer­ent sup­plier. Six months after the change, reports come in from Mexico and India that users have been killed by elec­tric shock received from units of Model 1523. After inves­ti­gat­ing the reports, your Product Safety depart­ment deter­mines that the faulty units used the new com­po­nent. Do you need to report this to ESA? YES — because Model 1523 is sold in Ontario.

Here’s another exam­ple. Your com­pany imports elec­tri­cal prod­ucts from a num­ber of coun­tries and sells them whole­sale to large retail­ers, some of whom have stores in Ontario. Do you need to reg­is­ter? NO — But you can­not legally sell prod­ucts from man­u­fac­tur­ers who are not reg­is­tered in Ontario.

What if the prod­ucts are imported into Ontario but are not sold to users in the Province, and are only ware­housed and whole­saled to retail­ers or other dis­trib­u­tors out­side of Ontario? Do you need to reg­is­ter? NO — But you must com­ply with the require­ments in the other juris­dic­tions where the prod­uct is sold. Check with the AHJ in each Province or Territory where your prod­ucts are sold to deter­mine the requirements.

What if I become aware of seri­ous inci­dents that are occur­ring with prod­ucts I sell in Ontario? You MUST report them to ESA, whether you make the prod­uct, import, dis­trib­ute or retail it.

What Products are Covered by the Regulations?

• Consumer elec­tri­cal products;
• Commercial elec­tri­cal products;
• Electrical Medical Devices;
• Industrial elec­tri­cal products;
• Wiring devices and products;
• Battery-​​operated devices used in Hazardous Locations;
• Battery charg­ers used with bat­tery oper­ated products;
• Hardwired and plug-​​in life safety prod­ucts like Smoke Detectors and CO Detectors;
• Certified com­po­nents used in any of the above.

Will this become a Canadian National System?

This is not yet known. There are dis­cus­sions going on with the other Provinces and Territories, how­ever these are very pre­lim­i­nary stages. ESA has stated that they are sup­port­ive of a National Program should it be devel­oped, but at this time these require­ments exist only in Ontario.

Tax Grab?

Some peo­ple have expressed the opin­ion that this is sim­ply a way to mask a new tax, since reg­is­tra­tion fees are payable on an annual basis. In fact, a means is required to fund the reg­istry, and the fees col­lected are to be used for that pur­pose. See the Funding Model Report. Since ESA’s man­date is to pro­tect the peo­ple of Ontario from elec­tri­cal haz­ards, and since there are increas­ing num­bers of seri­ous inci­dents occur­ring where the prod­ucts turn out be be unap­proved or fraud­u­lently marked, this is a rea­son­able way for the Authority to gain con­trol over the prod­ucts enter­ing the mar­ket­place, and to hold every­one in the sup­ply chain respon­si­ble for ensur­ing that only approved prod­ucts are sold in the Province.

Since there is no new mark­ing require­ment, and since rep­utable man­u­fac­tur­ers are already cer­ti­fy­ing or label­ing their prod­ucts for sale, and fur­ther­more since the reg­is­tra­tion fee is quite small for any orga­ni­za­tion sell­ing any quan­tity of prod­uct in the Province, this is not an oner­ous require­ment. You are still free to have any SCC accred­ited body whose mark is rec­og­nized in Ontario do the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion work.

Will it work?

This is the big unknown. Canadians are known for cre­at­ing reg­istries in response to a per­ceived need to con­trol some­thing. Notable fail­ures include the National Do Not Call reg­istry was sup­posed to allow Canadians to reg­is­ter their phone num­bers with the gov­ern­ment, who was then requir­ing Canadian based tele­mar­keters to scrub those num­bers from their call­ing data­bases. Unfortunately this only pro­vided num­bers to off-​​shore tele­mar­keters who are using the DNC Registry lists as a way to get num­bers to call.

It’s unfair to group this reg­istry with the pre­vi­ous exam­ple for a num­ber of rea­sons. The imple­men­ta­tion of this reg­istry is dif­fer­ent from the pre­vi­ous exam­ple in intent and exe­cu­tion. Compliance is mon­i­tored by the entire sup­ply chain. It prob­a­bly stands a pretty good chance of work­ing. Time will tell!

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