I can appreciate your position on this matter, and in fact it mirrors my original question posed to ESA – “What is the legal basis for the Registry, since Regulation 438 does not mention it?”. You are quite correct in saying that Regulation 438/07 does not mandate the registry. In fact there is no specific legislation that says that ESA must create and maintain such a registry. The regulation DOES require reporting of “serious incidents” [see Clause 8].

How can ESA go ahead and demand registration? It’s simple – they are the AHJ in Ontario and have the legal mandate through the Electricity Act and the Regulations to protect the safety of the citizens of Ontario in whatever way they decide is appropriate. If they decide that a registry of manufacturers is the way to handle the problems with non-compliant products that is within their purview.

I think that making the statement that this is a ‘tax grab’ is an unfortunate knee-jerk reaction. On the other hand I don’t know that this process will actually help control the problem that it is intended to address.

In the mean time, I would recommend the following to everyone that disagrees, but wants to be able to continue to do business in the province: Pay the registration fee and register with ESA.

THEN:
Write to the Minister of Small Business and Consumer Affairs, the Honourable Harinder Takar, infosbcs@ontario.ca.
Write to the Premier of the Province, the Honourable Dalton McGuinty, https://www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/feedback.asp, or go to his web site and get the physical address and WRITE.
Write to the head of ESA, Mr. Bob Stelzer, bob.stelzer@electricalsafety.on.ca and the VP of Regulatory Affairs, Mr. Peter Marcucci, peter.marcucci@electricalsafety.on.ca.

These are the people who must listen and who can change things.

I am not now, nor have I ever been an employee of ESA, nor does our company have any other relationship with ESA for any purpose. We are an independent product safety consultancy located in Ontario.

Keep the comments coming!