Background: Updating regulations to modernize and strengthen motor vehicle safety for Canadians

Transport Canada wants to keep Canadian road users safe by updating certain motor vehicle and motor vehicle equipment (i.e. tires and child car seats) safety regulations related to safety defects and notices of non-compliance.

We will develop and propose changes to the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations, the Motor Vehicle Tire Safety Regulations, and the Motor Vehicle Restraint Systems and Booster Seat Safety Regulations. These changes would give us the data we need to modernize, identify and analyse possible vehicle and equipment safety defects, and how recalls are issued. The proposal would require companies to collect, maintain, and share specific automotive information with Transport Canada.

We also plan on proposing changes to the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations to improve public access to companies' recall information. These changes would require companies to make recall information available online and require certain companies to provide a recall search tool. This would help the public to check if their vehicle is affected by a recall.

As part of this consultation, we'd like to know:

For the regulatory proposal that would require companies to give Transport Canada information on vehicles of a regulated class, tires and child car seats made and imported for sale in Canada and those that are the same, or very similar but sold in other countries:

1. Should all companies be required to provide the same information (regardless of their production volume, type of vehicle class, etc.)?
2. Should companies be required to provide information other than what Transport Canada is proposing below? Why?
3. Should Transport Canada provide a website or other tool for companies to submit their information electronically?
4. Should Transport Canada host a meeting to discuss this amendment (change)?
   • Depending on the responses from this consultation, we may host a meeting, so please let us know if you'd like to participate. Note: Only people who have shown an interest in participating will be sent an invitation.

For the regulatory proposal that would require companies to give Canadians more safety recall information and develop a recall search tool:

1. How soon after a recall is issued should a company be required to post recall information online?
2. Should an online recall tool be able to search for multiple vehicles at the same time?
3. Should Transport Canada host a meeting to discuss this amendment (change)?
   • Depending on the responses from this consultation, we may host a meeting, so please let us know if you'd like to participate. Note: Only people who have shown an interest in participating will be sent an invitation.

Information to help identify potential safety defects

In 2016, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada audited Transport Canada's regulatory framework and how we oversee vehicle safety defects and non-compliance. It also looked at whether we find and acceptably deal with emerging safety risks in a timely way.

The report found that while some parts of the program performed well, improvements were needed. More specifically, the Auditor General felt that oversight could be improved by requiring companies to share information on their internal investigations into ongoing vehicle-related safety issues. Transport Canada agreed and committed to developing new regulations.

In 2016, the government tabled Bill S-2 - Strengthening Motor Vehicle Safety for Canadians Act in Parliament. Among other things, the Bill updated subsection 5(2) of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act. The update requires companies to collect and maintain specific information that would be defined in the regulations. It includes recalls and specific records about vehicles, tires and child car seats in other countries that are the same or very similar to those made or imported for sale in Canada.

The Strengthening Motor Vehicle Safety for Canadians Act (Bill S-2) received Royal Assent in March of 2018, but the new authority under subsection 5(2) of the Act will not come into force until the regulations are in place. The changes we are proposing would allow us to bring those sections into force.

The new regulations would specify the information that companies would have to collect and share with Transport Canada, to help with investigations and to identify potential safety defects.

The changes would also help bring Canada's regulations in line with those of the United States, and the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act. The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act requires that industry report incidents that led to, or may have led to, deaths, serious illness, and recalls.A system similar to what is being proposed has existed in the US since 2003, known as the Early Warning Reporting under the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation Act.

Transport Canada is proposing that the following classes of companies collect and maintain the information described below, and share it with us.

Prescribed class of company	Description	Information requirements
Class 1	High-volume companies that make at least one of these vehicle classes: passenger cars multi-purpose passenger vehicles light-duty trucks motorcycles, and three-wheeled vehicles And, Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) of those vehicles is 4,536KG (~10,000lbs) or less And, the yearly vehicle production volume of those vehicles is 500 or more Note: any company that fits the description of Class 1, but also makes equipment or heavy vehicles should be considered as Class 2 when it comes to the information requirements for heavy vehicles and equipment.	For vehicles made or imported for sale into Canada, and for identical vehicles or ones that are very similar to ones sold in other countries: List of the company's internal investigations into issues linked to the safety performance of their vehicles and parts All reports of death, injury and fire Foreign recalls Copies of certain technical field reports Copies of internal and external communications - technical service bulletins, customer satisfaction campaigns, consumer advisories, warranty extensions and other activities involving the repair or replacement of motor vehicles, as and goodwill actions (when a company deals with an issue by extending or liberalizing the terms of the warranty) For vehicles made or imported for sale in Canada only, a list of legal claims alleging a potential safety-related issue
Class 2	Low-volume companies, companies of heavy vehicles or companies of equipment that: make all other regulated classes of vehicles or equipment (like tires and child car seats), or any other companies that don't meet the requirements of Class 1	For vehicles and equipment made or imported for sale in Canada, and of those that are identical or very similar but sold in other countries, requirements as applicable: All reports of death, injury and fire Foreign recalls Copies of certain technical field reports Copies of internal and external communications - technical service bulletins, customer satisfaction campaigns, consumer advisories, warranty extensions and other activities involving the repair or replacement of motor vehicles, child car seats and tires, and goodwill actions (when a company deals with an issue by extending or liberalizing the terms of the warranty) For vehicles and equipment made and imported for sale in Canada only, a list of legal claims alleging a potential safety-related issue.

The changes would also require vehicle companies to keep records for 10 years, instead of the current five years.

Recall information

Changes to section 10.3 of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, made under Bills C-31 and S-2, allow Transport Canada to require that companies make information available for vehicles and equipment affected by a recall.

Currently, the regulations require companies to notify owners about a recall as soon as possible, but no later than 60 days after notifying the Minister. This notification usually arrives by mail. While a company may have notified the owners of a recall, the repairs may not have been done yet and continued use of the vehicle could be a risk to safety.

This proposal would help the public to access recall information more quickly and encourage vehicle owners to have the work done. Although many companies already list recalls on their websites, this proposal would make sure that all companies list recalls in the same way, and include the same information.

Transport Canada wants all companies to provide the same basic recall information on their websites. It would also require some larger vehicle companies to create a web-based recall search engine that users could search with a VIN and permit “batch searching”, whereby a user could search for recalls on a large quantity of vehicles at once. This is something that some organizations (for example fleet operators, rideshare and car rental agencies) have said would be useful to help complete recalls. Companies could include as much detail as they want to, but would be required to post some basic information, at minimum.

Transport Canada wants to require companies to share this recall information:

Level A

Any motor vehicle or equipment company designated by the Minister would have to include a link on their Canadian website's home page to a list of basic information about their recalls including:

• A basic description of each safety recall
• How to get information about past recalls
• Where someone can report what they believe is a safety issue with their vehicle or equipment
• Who to contact if they have a recall-related question

Level B

Designated large-volume vehicle companies (e.g. major car and motorcycle companies) would be required to provide a free, searchable, web-based service to search for recalls by VIN (vehicle identification number). The service would have to:

• include information in both English and French
• be linked from the home page on the company's Canadian website
• be updated within 30 days of notifying the Minister of a recall, and then every 7 days after
• explain how the user can contact the company
• tell users if their VIN is or is not recognized by the company
  • If the VIN is recognized, the site should list the vehicle make, model and year
• display information about any recall where notice was given, but repairs haven't been completed
  • This information should be placed first and be “hard to miss”

For each recall where repairs haven't been completed, the search results would have to include:

• the motor vehicle safety recall number issued by Transport Canada
• a description of issue, including its location and causes
• the vehicle systems or parts that could be affected by the issue
• operating conditions and other factors, and the warning signs of an issue with the system or part
• a description of the safety risks to people due to the issue
• a statement that the issue could cause a crash, or
  • if a crash isn't likely, list information about the type of injury that could result from the issue
• a description of what needs to be done to correct the issue
• the earliest date that the parts and facilities should be available to correct the defect

For each recall where repairs have been completed, the search results would have to include:

• the motor vehicle safety recall number issued by Transport Canada
• a description of issue, including its location and causes
• the date when repairs were completed

Allow outside database queries to access information on incomplete recalls from multiple VINs (batch) at the same time through a secure communication protocol like an API (application programming interface).

Coming into force

This is an informal consultation. If a regulatory proposal is created based on this notice, it would be published with a proposed coming into force date in the Canada Gazette, Part I, followed by a formal comment period. You will also have the opportunity to provide feedback during this formal comment period. Any new regulatory requirement would come into force after it is published in the Canada Gazette, Part II.