Bill 164, Community Right to Know Act, 2007
Bill 164 places retailers in an untenable situation
Retailers are not only sellers and importers of goods or services; they are increasingly brand owners themselves.
Retailers recognize that as brand owners, they have a responsibility to ensure that their products are not harmful to consumers or the environment. Retailers want to mitigate any risk associated with consumer products. Indeed, that is why we support a national set of standards designed to protect against human and environmental harm.
However, Bill 164 does not propose to reduce risk, but rather to warn against it. Retailers have expressed grave concerns about the implications that such an approach would have if undertaken at the provincial level.
Without any legal mechanism in place requiring vendors to supply them with the contents and concentration of toxic substances that may or may not be contained in products, retailers will be placed at a high risk of non-compliance.
While this is of particular concern to small, independent merchants who are selling and importing these products, it is also of concern for mid and large retailers who have their own private brands. Brand owners do not necessarily produce the merchandise themselves but may simply market and sell the merchandise to consumers. Retail brand owners who do not produce their private label products may not always be aware of the chemical formulas and ingredients that comprise them. For example, this information may not be shared owing to proprietary patents, and retailers have no means of forcing the producer to reveal that information.
The proposed Act would place retailers in a situation where they are doomed to fail, and thereby incur the legal and administrative costs associated with failure through no wrong-doing on their part.