Motor Vehicle Safety Act

Marginal note:Entry by inspector

• 15 (1) For a purpose related to verifying compliance with this Act, an inspector may at any reasonable time enter any place, other than a dwelling-house but including a collision site, in which the inspector believes on reasonable grounds there is

  • (a) any vehicle or equipment of a class for which standards are prescribed;

  • (b) any component that is used or intended to be used in the manufacture of a vehicle or equipment for which safety standards are prescribed; or

  • (c) any record referred to in paragraph 5(1)(g).

• Marginal note:Entry by inspector

  (2) In carrying out their duties, an inspector and any person accompanying the inspector may enter on and pass through or over private property, other than a dwelling-house, without being liable for doing so and without any person having the right to object to that use of the property.

• Marginal note:Power to require attendance of persons

  (3) An inspector who enters a place may require the attendance of persons whom the inspector considers relevant to the carrying out of the inspector’s functions.

• Marginal note:Powers

  (4) The inspector may, for the purpose referred to in subsection (1),

  • (a) examine any vehicle, equipment or component that is in the place;

  • (b) open and examine any package or receptacle that the inspector believes contains any equipment or component referred to in that subsection;

  • (c) examine any document that is in the place, make copies of it or take extracts from it;

  • (d) disassemble and remove any constituent components;

  • (e) order the owner or person having possession, care or control of any vehicle or equipment to which this Act applies that is in the place to move it or, for any time that may be necessary, not to move it or to restrict its movement;

  • (f) use or cause to be used a computer or other device that is in the place to examine data that is contained in or available to a computer system or reproduce it or cause it to be reproduced in the form of a printout or other intelligible output and remove the output for examination or copying;

  • (g) use or cause to be used copying equipment that is in the place and remove the copies for examination;

  • (h) take photographs or make recordings or sketches; and

  • (i) remove any vehicle, equipment or component from the place for the purpose of examination or conducting tests.

• Marginal note:Assistance to inspector

  (5) Any person who owns or has charge of a place entered by an inspector under subsection (1) and every person present there shall answer all of the inspector’s reasonable questions related to the inspection, provide access to all electronic data that the inspector may reasonably require, provide all reasonable assistance in their power to enable the inspector to carry out his or her duties and furnish any information that the inspector reasonably requires for the purposes of the administration of this Act.

• Marginal note:Seizure of property

  (6) An inspector may seize and, subject to sections 489.1 to 491.2 of the Criminal Code, detain any vehicle, equipment or component described in subsection (1)

  • (a) by means of which or in relation to which the inspector believes on reasonable grounds that this Act has been contravened; or

  • (b) that the inspector believes on reasonable grounds will afford evidence in respect of a contravention of this Act.

• Marginal note:Interference with seized property

  (7) Except with the authorization of an inspector, no person shall remove, alter or otherwise interfere with any vehicle, equipment or component seized by an inspector under subsection (6).