Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (S.C. 1999, c. 33)

Notice of Defects

Marginal note:Obligation to give notice

• 157 (1) A company that manufactures, sells or imports any vehicle, engine or equipment of a class for which standards are prescribed shall, on becoming aware of a defect in the design, construction or functioning of the vehicle, engine or equipment that affects or is likely to affect its compliance with a prescribed standard, cause notice of the defect to be given in the prescribed manner to

  • (a) the Minister;

  • (b) each person who has obtained such a vehicle, engine or equipment from the company; and

  • (c) each current owner of such a vehicle, engine or equipment.

• Marginal note:Determining owners

  (2) Current owners are to be determined for the purpose of subsection (1)

  • (a) from a warranty issued by the company with respect to the functioning of the vehicle, engine or equipment that has, to its knowledge, been given, sold or transferred to the current owner;

  • (b) in the case of a vehicle, from registration records of a government; or

  • (c) in the case of an engine or equipment, from a registration system referred to in paragraph 153(1)(h).

• Marginal note:If notice previously given

  (3) A company is not required to cause notice to be given of a defect of which notice has already been given under this section or under section 10 of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

• Marginal note:Publication of notice

  (4) If the Minister is satisfied that the name of the current owner of the vehicle, engine or equipment cannot reasonably be determined by a company in accordance with subsection (2), the Minister may

  • (a) order the company to give notice of the defect by publication in the prescribed form for a period of five consecutive days in two major daily newspapers in each of the following six regions, namely, the Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairie provinces, British Columbia and the Territories, or by dissemination in an alternative medium for any period that the Minister determines; or

  • (b) order that the current owner need not be notified.

• Marginal note:Contents of notice

  (5) A notice required to be given under subsections (1) and (4) shall contain, in the form and to the extent prescribed, a description of the defect, an evaluation of the pollution risk arising from it and directions for correcting it.

• Marginal note:Particulars to responsible authorities

  (6) On receiving a notice under subsection (1), the Minister shall forward full particulars of the notice to the person responsible for vehicle or engine administration in each government.

• Marginal note:Follow-up reports

  (7) Every company that causes notice to be given under subsection (1) shall submit an initial report and subsequent regular reports respecting the defect and its correction in accordance with the regulations.

• Marginal note:Frequency of reports

  (8) Unless the Minister directs otherwise, the reports referred to in subsection (7) shall be submitted for a period of two years after the day on which notice was given under subsection (1).

Research and Testing

Marginal note:Powers of Minister

158 The Minister may

• (a) conduct any research, studies and evaluations that the Minister considers necessary for the administration and enforcement of this Division;

• (b) undertake research and development programs for the study of the effect of vehicles, engines or equipment or emissions on air pollution, energy conservation and the environment and for the promotion of measures to control that effect;

• (c) establish and operate facilities for the testing of vehicles, engines or equipment and components, and acquire test equipment for that purpose;

• (d) make the facilities referred to in paragraph (c) and all related material, parts and services available to any person; and

• (e) publish or otherwise disseminate information relating to the activities of the Minister under this section.

Marginal note:Emission control tests

• 159 (1) At the request of the Minister and subject to payment by the Minister of the cost of transportation and of rental at a prescribed rate based on capital value, a company shall make available for testing any vehicle, engine, equipment or component that

  • (a) was used in tests conducted by or for the company in order to establish information submitted to the Minister under paragraph 153(1)(c); or

  • (b) for the purpose of that testing, is equivalent to a vehicle, an engine, equipment or a component referred to in paragraph (a).

• Marginal note:Testing by Minister

  (2) The Minister may examine and dismantle any vehicle, engine, equipment or component made available under subsection (1) and conduct all necessary tests to verify the accuracy of tests referred to in paragraph (1)(a).

• Marginal note:Detention of vehicles or engines

  (3) The Minister may not detain any vehicle, engine, equipment or component for more than 90 days after completion of the tests conducted under subsection (2) unless, before that time, proceedings have been instituted in respect of an offence related to the vehicle, engine, equipment or component, in which case it may be detained until the proceedings are concluded.

Regulations

Marginal note:Regulations

• 160 (1) The Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister, make regulations for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Division, including regulations

  • (a) respecting emissions and prescribing standards in relation to emissions;

  • (b) establishing the national emissions marks;

  • (c) respecting the conditions that must be met for a national emissions mark to be used in relation to vehicles, engines or equipment or a class of vehicles, engines or equipment;

  • (d) respecting the manner of applying national emissions marks;

  • (e) prescribing the period for which records referred to in paragraph 153(1)(g) or a registration system referred to in paragraph 153(1)(h) shall be retained;

  • (f) respecting exemptions from sections 153 and 154;

  • (g) respecting the information to be submitted under section 153;

  • (g.1) respecting inspection and certification referred to in subsection 155(2) and, in particular, designating any person who is authorized to inspect or certify vehicles; and

  • (h) prescribing or providing for anything that by this Division is to be prescribed or provided for by the regulations.

• Marginal note:Progressive application

  (2) Regulations prescribing a standard may be made applicable in respect of a specified proportion of vehicles, engines or equipment of a class before they are made applicable in respect of all vehicles, engines or equipment of that class.

Definition of technical standards document

• 161 (1) In this section, technical standards document means a document, published in the prescribed manner by authority of the Minister, that reproduces in the official languages of Canada an enactment of a foreign government with any adaptations of form and reference that will facilitate the incorporation of the enactment under this section.

• Marginal note:Incorporation of document

  (2) For greater certainty, regulations made under this Division may incorporate by reference a technical standards document as it reads on a prescribed day or as it is amended from time to time following the incorporation by reference, and may extend, qualify or exclude the application of any provision of the document so incorporated.

• Marginal note:Publication

  (3) No person is required to comply with a provision of a technical standards document incorporated by the regulations until six months after the publication of the provision in the prescribed manner, if the person continues to comply with the provision for which that provision is substituted.

• Marginal note:Document not a regulation

  (4) A technical standards document is not a regulation for the purposes of the Statutory Instruments Act.

Marginal note:Emission credits

• 162 (1) Regulations that prescribe standards in relation to emissions may provide for a system of credits based on the following principles:

  • (a) a company may establish that vehicles, engines or equipment conform to those standards by applying credits against emissions of the vehicles, engines or equipment in the prescribed manner and within prescribed limits;

  • (b) credits may be obtained by a company in the prescribed manner

    • (i) by reference to emissions of the vehicles, engines or equipment that more than meet the requirements of those standards, or

    • (ii) by the payment of an amount to the Receiver General determined at a prescribed rate in relation to emissions of the vehicle, engine or equipment; and

  • (c) credits obtained by reference to emissions may be transferred to or from a company in the prescribed manner.

• Marginal note:Deemed conformity to standard

  (2) Regulations referred to in subsection (1) may provide that any vehicle, engine or equipment is deemed to conform to a standard if the application of those regulations to all vehicles, engines or equipment of its class sold in Canada and the United States would result in that vehicle, engine or equipment so conforming.

• Marginal note:Emission report

  (3) Every company shall submit to the Minister, in the prescribed form and manner and at the prescribed time, a report setting out, with respect to a prescribed period, an account of any emission credits obtained or applied by the company and a description of each of the following vehicles, engines or pieces of equipment for which credits were obtained or applied:

  • (a) vehicles, engines and equipment to which the company applied a national emissions mark during that period, other than those that were exported;

  • (b) vehicles, engines and equipment bearing a national emissions mark that were sold by the company in Canada during that period; and

  • (c) vehicles, engines and equipment that were imported by the company during that period for the purpose of sale in Canada.

• Marginal note:Contents of report

  (4) If credits applied under this section were obtained on the basis of emissions from vehicles, engines or equipment not referred to in paragraph (3)(a), (b) or (c), the report submitted in respect of the application of those credits shall include a description of those vehicles, engines or equipment.

Marginal note:Interim order

• 163 (1) If an enactment of a foreign government corresponds to the regulations made under this Division and that enactment is amended by that government or its operation is affected by a decision of a foreign court, the Minister may issue an interim order suspending or modifying the operation of the regulations to the extent that they are inconsistent with the enactment as amended or given effect.

• Marginal note:Effective date of order

  (2) An interim order has effect from the time it is made.

• Marginal note:Approval of Governor in Council

  (3) An interim order ceases to have effect 14 days after it is made unless it is approved by the Governor in Council within that period.

• Marginal note:Contravention of regulation modified by an unpublished order

  (4) No person shall be convicted of an offence consisting of a contravention of a regulation to the extent that it is modified or suspended by an interim order that, at the time of the alleged contravention, had not been published in the Canada Gazette unless it is proved that, at the time of the alleged contravention, the person had been notified of the interim order.

• Marginal note:Cessation of effect

  (5) Subject to subsection (3), an interim order ceases to have effect on the earliest of

  • (a) the day it is repealed,

  • (b) the day the regulation is amended or repealed to give effect to the order, and

  • (c) one year after the order is made.

Evidence

Marginal note:Evidence

164 In a prosecution under this Act, evidence that any vehicle, engine or equipment bore a name or mark purporting to be the name or mark of a company engaged in the business of manufacturing, importing or selling vehicles, engines or equipment is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, proof that the vehicle, engine or equipment was manufactured, imported or sold, as the case may be, by the company.