Regulations Amending the Tobacco Reporting Regulations

The Regulations Amending the Tobacco Reporting Regulations (“the Regulations”) and the associated Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement were published in the March 20, 2019 edition of the Canada Gazette, Part II.

Background

The Tobacco Reporting Regulations (TRR) set out the requirements for the reporting of information on the sales, manufacturing processes, ingredients, constituents, emissions, research and development activities as well as promotional activities undertaken by tobacco manufacturers. Information collected by Health Canada under the TRR has been used to inform various policy decisions and the implementation of effective tobacco control strategies to protect the health of Canadians.

Objectives

The Regulations amends the TRR to:

• address the recommendations of the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations (SJCSR);
• update and clarify the requirements in order to make them more relevant to the current environment and to eliminate redundant requirements;
• update the official testing methods for the sampling and testing of tobacco products to reflect technological advances.

Health Canada expects that the amendments would enhance the quality and completeness of the information submitted by the tobacco industry. The changes are therefore expected to contribute to improved decisions on tobacco control policies and activities in the future.

Coming into force

The Regulations came into force on the day of registration. However, there are transitional periods for the submission of certain reports to allow sufficient time for the manufacturers to prepare the reports in accordance with the new requirements.