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What We Do

The Hazardous Materials Information Review Commission (HMIRC) was created on October 1, 1987 and it is accountable to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Health. HMIRC is a model of industry, labour and government consultation, consensus, and cooperation. Our uniqueness is exemplified by the fact that we derive our mandate and program accountability from federal, provincial, and territorial legislation.

The Commission enables chemical companies to protect their trade secrets, and while doing so ensures that accurate health and safety information about hazardous chemicals is available to workers in order to reduce workplace-related illness and injury. The Commission’s activities are key components of the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), which was created in the late 1980s through a consensus of labour, industry and government. The success of WHMIS depends on cooperation among all these partners. All three groups play a part in ensuring that the information workers need to know about hazardous chemical products is available.

WHMIS requires that manufacturers and suppliers provide employers with information on the hazards of materials produced, sold, or used in Canadian workplaces. The employers, in turn, provide that information to employees through product labels, worker education programs, and material safety data sheets (MSDSs). A product’s MSDS must fully disclose all hazardous ingredients in the product, its toxicological properties, any safety precautions workers need to take when using the product and treatment required in the case of exposure.

When a supplier introduces a new or improved product and wants to protect the identity of one or more of the ingredients or the concentration, the company applies to HMIRC for an exemption from the requirement to list all hazardous ingredients on the product’s MSDS. Once the application is complete, HMIRC registers the claim and the product can be made available in the marketplace. The Commission then issues a decision on the validity of the claim and, to protect worker safety, verifies the compliance of the MSDS and, in some cases, the label with the Hazardous Products Act and Controlled Products Regulations, and with provincial and territorial occupational health and safety acts. The Commission issues orders for any changes that are necessary to the MSDS or product labels.

If the Commission finds that the information can be considered a trade secret, the company’s exemption claim remains in effect for three years. At the end of that period the company can refile a claim for exemption.

All the decisions and orders of the Commission can be appealed before an appeal board. Each appeal board has three members: a chairperson, a representative of suppliers or employers, and a representative of workers.

Our Mandate

Under the authority of the Hazardous Materials Information Review Act and the provincial and territorial occupational health and safety acts, the 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 a prescribed regulatory criteria;
• to make decisions on the compliance of MSDSs and labels within the 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.

Our Business Lines

The Commission has adopted a business outlook on its operations and this approach became the building blocks for the creation of our strategic plan entitled Commission Renewal: Blueprint for Change. In order to reinforce the Commission’s focus on its mandate: protecting trade secrets, ensuring MSDS compliance and providing all parties with a range of options for discussion on screening officers’ decisions and orders (appeals)—we have established three new business lines: Client Services, MSDS Compliance and Dispute Resolution. Unique in nature, the three business lines utilize individual processes and approaches in response to the different roles they are mandated to carry out. The creation of these business lines represents a positive and pragmatic step towards modernizing our services and meeting our clients’ changing needs.

HMIRC’s Business Lines

HMIRC’s three core business lines are supported by a strong Corporate Services capacity to ensure that our business activities operate effectively and efficiently.

Client Services

Client Services involves the formal registration of claims for exemption, the issuance of registry numbers, and the security of claim-related information. Service to clients begins when the Commission is contacted by a company wanting to make a claim and needing to know what the process involves.

Client Services assists companies in protecting confidential business information while at the same time meeting their WHMIS obligations. Information is provided that can help companies present complete and accurate MSDSs with their claims. Our Web site helps us share this information with industry and labour. The Commission continues to strive to meet its service standards. Telephone enquiries are handled within 24 hours, and written enquiries within one week of receipt.

Once the application is accepted as complete, we issue the company a registry number for the claim in no more than seven days, and often much more quickly.

Screening officers have the statutory responsibility to decide whether claims are valid, and for determining whether MSDSs or labels submitted with the claims comply with the WHMIS legislation.

The decision on claim validity is reached by reviewing supporting information from the claimant against the criteria prescribed in the Hazardous Materials Information Review Regulations.

Client Services is designed to ensure that:

• Professionalism, cost-effectiveness, timeliness and responsiveness define our claim registration service.
• A firm understanding of business/government relations guides our service delivery.
• Fairness and justice reflect our processes.
• Openness and accountability encourage client feedback.
• Prompt and courteous service define our complaint management process.

MSDS Compliance

Screening officers review claim related MSDSs and, in some cases, labels pursuant to the Hazardous Products Act, the Canada Labour Code, and provincial and territorial occupational health and safety legislation, and decide whether they are within the WHMIS regulatory requirements. Such decisions take into account health and safety advice prepared by scientific evaluators in the MSDS Compliance Division.

When work begins on a file, the first step is to build a collection of scientific information relevant to each of the product’s ingredients. The evaluator will be alert for new information or information of which the company might not have been aware, trying to ensure that the MSDS reflects the current state of knowledge about the hazards that may be associated with a product.

Evaluators assess this information and prepare an advice document for the screening officers on the health and safety hazards posed by the product which have not been adequately disclosed on the MSDS. The screening officers offer claimants and affected parties an opportunity to review and comment on the health and safety information and advice provided by the evaluators.

At the conclusion of the claim and MSDS review process, a formal Statement of Decision is forwarded to the claimant. Should a claim be ruled invalid, an order is issued to the claimant to disclose the confidential business information which was the subject of the claim. Where the MSDS or label does not meet the WHMIS requirements, the screening officer orders that changes be made to bring about compliance. All orders specify the period during which various changes must be made if the product is to continue to be sold in Canada.

A notice is published in the Canada Gazette to make public the decisions and orders issued by the screening officer, and to initiate the time during which the claimant and affected parties may appeal the decisions or orders. If no appeal is filed, the claimant must provide a copy of the amended MSDS to the screening officer, who reviews it to ensure compliance with the order.

MSDS Compliance is designed to ensure that:

• Openness, accessibility and transparency, while respecting the confidentiality provisions of the legislation, guide our actions to regulate in the public interest.
• Fairness is the cornerstone of our decision making process.
• A firm dedication to ensuring workplace health and safety, and sound scientific principles, judgement and information guide the decisions we render.
• Stakeholder satisfaction drives our process for complaint management.
• High standards direct our annual program performance review.

Dispute Resolution

The aim of the Dispute Resolution business line is to provide stakeholders with a range of options to facilitate discussion on issues arising from decisions and orders of the Commission in a manner that is cost-effective, open and fair to everyone involved. The Commission is in the process of designing and developing, through tripartite consultation, a Dispute Resolution system which will supplement and work in conjunction with the current appeals process.

The appeals process includes the convening of independent tripartite boards to hear appeals from claimants or affected parties. An appeal may relate to the compliance of an MSDS, the rejection of a claim or to request disclosure in confidence, for reasons of health and safety in a workplace, of information in respect of which a claim for exemption is made. For each appeal filed, a Notice of Appeal is published in the Canada Gazette to provide affected parties with an opportunity to make representations to the appeal board.

An appeal board is comprised of a chairperson appointed by the chief appeals officer, and two members appointed by the chairperson: one representing suppliers and/or employers, and the other, workers. Board members are selected from lists of potential nominees established in accordance with the Hazardous Materials Information Review Act.

The final outcome of the appeals process is a decision by the appeal board to dismiss the appeal and confirm the decisions or orders of the screening officer; or to allow the appeal and either vary or rescind the decisions or orders being appealed. A notice of decision, including the purport and reasons, is published in the Canada Gazette.

Dispute Resolution is designed to ensure that:

• Clarity and straightforwardness reflect our service and information delivery.
• Expeditious resolution of cases, transparency of activities, and informality direct our complaint and dispute resolution processes.
• Effective procedures and methods facilitate the identification and resolution of complaints.
• Our unbiased approach to the decision making process ensures impartial service to all parties.
• Flexibility and fairness are reflected in our dispute resolution options.
• Durable outcomes ensure better compliance, fewer disputes and improved relations for all parties involved in case settlements.
• All parties will be encouraged to seek consensus agreements in resolving their disputes.

Corporate Services

The Corporate Services Division has been mandated with a very important role: ensuring the success of the three core business lines. Corporate Services provides a full range of services to the Commission including finance, records and facilities management, security, management services, information technology, administration, human resources, communications and strategic planning.

Corporate Services is designed to ensure that:

• We understand the needs of both our internal clients and our external clients and provide a professional and responsive support service to those clients in a prompt and timely fashion.
• We provide the Commission with the optimum tools and equipment to enable it to achieve its mission in an effective and efficient manner.
• We have a clear understanding of our clients’ business lines and we provide our clients with an updated and comprehensive understanding and knowledge of our services and capabilities.
• We seek and respond to client feedback.
• We are committed to supporting the career development and professional aspirations of all the Commission’s staff.
• We expect crisis and are able to effectively manage it.
• We provide a secure environment for claimants’ trade secrets through effective and efficient policy and procedures which minimize disruption on the staff.
• We provide strong support and guidance in all aspects of communications.
• We maintain and nurture the corporate identity.