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Annual Report 1998–1999

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Table of Contents
>>	The Commission Mandate
>>	President’s Message
>>	HMIRC: A New Organization
>>	A Day in the Life of the Public Service of Canada
>>	Our Business Lines
>>	The Year at a Glance
>>	The Organization
>>	Financial Statements

The Commission Mandate

Under the authority of the Hazardous Materials Information Review Act and the provincial and territorial Occupational Health and Safety Acts, the Hazardous Materials Information Review Commission is an administrative agency charged with carrying out a multi-faceted mandate:

• to formally register claims for trade secret exemptions, and issue registry numbers;
• to issue decisions on the validity of claims for exemption using prescribed regulatory criteria;
• to make decisions on the compliance of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) and labels within the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) requirements as set out in the Hazardous Products Act and Controlled Products Regulations and various provincial and territorial Occupational Health and Safety Acts; and
• to convene independent, tripartite boards to hear appeals from claimants or affected parties on decisions and orders issued by the Commission.

The Commission’s clientele consists of a number of WHMIS stakeholders: suppliers and employers in the chemical industry who wish to protect their trade secrets from being disclosed on MSDSs or labels; employers who rely on supplier MSDS information to prepare their own workplace MSDSs and training programs; and labour representing all workers who are exposed to these products.