Environment and Climate Change Canada has published two mandatory information notices covering 200 substances in total. The provision to watch is not the substance count but the reach: reporting extends to substances present in imported manufactured items at 0.1% or more, for a defined set of product categories.
What Happened
Two notices under section 71 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 were published by the Department of the Environment in Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol. 160, No. 35, on 29 August 2026. The 2026 Phase 1 notice applies to 184 substances set out in Schedule 1 across four Parts; the 2026 Phase 2 notice applies to a further 16 substances, also in four Parts, of which Part 1 has 2 substances, Part 2 none, Part 3 has 2 and Part 4 has 12. Both notices compel information on commercial status, facility use, quantities and environmental release for the 2025 calendar year. Responses are submitted to the Minister of the Environment through ECCC’s Single Window online reporting portal. This is a data-gathering instrument rather than a restriction, but it is the standard precursor to CEPA risk assessment and risk management.
What’s New
- 200 substances in total: 184 in Phase 1 and 16 in Phase 2, each notice structured across four Parts.
- Thresholds: more than 100 kg for substances in Part 1 and Part 4; more than 1,000 kg for Part 2; more than 100 kg for Part 3, but limited to import and use for specified applications rather than the full manufacture, import and use trigger. In Phase 2, Part 2 is empty, so the 1,000 kg threshold has no substances attached to it.
- Reporting extends to substances present in imported manufactured items at a concentration of 0.1% or more by weight, where the item falls in listed categories: items intended for children under 14, items with mucous-membrane contact, inhalable or dermal-contact items, cookware and serving utensils, food packaging and containers, clothing and footwear, bedding and towels, and residential furniture and flooring.
- A manufactured item is defined as an item formed into a specific physical shape or design during manufacture whose final use function depends wholly or partly on that shape or design.
- Part 3 application codes include C401 exterior car waxes, polishes and coatings, and C403 interior car washes and soaps — the direct automotive touchpoint in these notices.
- Substance families represented include benzoic acid derivatives and salts, benzothiazoles, phenols and substituted phenols, benzenediamines, chromium compounds, azo dyes and colorants, tall oil derivatives, alkylated benzenes, and terpenes and essential oils.
- Non-response is an offence under CEPA, not a missed voluntary survey.
Key Dates & Timeline
Both notices published; Phase 1 reporting window opens
Phase 1 responses due
Phase 2 reporting window opens
Phase 2 responses due
The reporting year for both notices
Affected Industries
Chemicals · Coatings, adhesives and polymer additives · Automotive aftermarket and car care · Electrical and electronic equipment · Textiles and furnishings · Chemical formulators and importers
Who Is Affected
Any person who manufactured, imported or used a listed substance above threshold in Canada during 2025, including Canadian plants and importers into Canada; importers of finished goods in the listed article categories; anyone marketing car care products in Canada.
Standards / Products in Scope
The 200 listed substances, and — for the listed article categories only — those substances present in imported manufactured items at 0.1% or more by weight. Substances below the stated thresholds and activities outside the reporting year are out of scope.
Prohibitions, Restrictions & Requirements
No prohibition at this stage. These are information-gathering notices, and the obligation is to respond accurately and on time.
What Companies Should Do
- Run both substance lists against IMDS and CDX data and against raw-material declarations for Canadian plants and Canadian import flows now — the release, use-pattern and quantity fields take months to assemble.
- Check the article categories carefully before concluding that a vehicle is out of scope: passenger vehicles are not among the listed categories, so the article-level 0.1% trigger generally does not reach a finished vehicle. Your exposure is at substance and mixture level, and via Part 3 car care products.
- If you sell exterior waxes, polishes and coatings or interior car washes and soaps in Canada, check application codes C401 and C403 against your formulations specifically.
- Assign a single accountable owner per facility, since responses are per person per substance, and treat any substance confirmed in use as a candidate for future CEPA restriction — start identifying alternates in parallel with the data collection.
Two details are worth getting right. The notices do not name automotive manufacturing as a target sector, so the finished-vehicle exposure is limited; but the article-level 0.1% trigger and the car care application codes create real obligations for aftermarket and interior-adjacent product lines that a plant-focused review will miss entirely.
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