Canada's Energy Efficiency Regulations

Regulatory process

Canada's Energy Efficiency Act provides for the making and enforcement of regulations concerning energy efficiency and testing standards, labelling, and data collection on energy use for energy-using products.

The Energy Efficiency Regulations establish energy efficiency standards for a wide range of energy-using products, with the objective of eliminating the least energy-efficient products from the Canadian market. They apply to regulated energy-using products imported into Canada or manufactured in Canada and shipped from one province or territory to another for the purpose of sale or lease. Changes to the EnerGuide label are also made through amendments to the Regulations.

As part of the regulatory process, Natural Resources Canada consults stakeholders by making public its intentions and providing access to draft proposals. Considered amendments and important related information are available through Natural Resources Canada's website in the form of technical bulletins and information is also provided as to how to submit comments. Draft proposals are then pre-published in the Canada Gazette, Part I. This allows for public scrutiny during the official comment period. Regulatory proposals are then updated if necessary and proceed to their final approval and publication the Canada Gazette, Part II. All public notices relating to pre-publication and publication of the Regulations can be found under Regulation Announcements.

Like all other federal regulations, amending the Energy Efficiency Regulations is done in accordance with the Cabinet Directive on Regulations. A summary of the current Regulations is available on Guide to Regulations.

Act amendments

In 2017, changes to the Energy Efficiency Act gave the federal government more tools to harmonize and maintain harmonization with other jurisdictions, like a province, a U.S. State or the United States to avoid or reduce unnecessary differences across jurisdictions which can create added burden on businesses.

Ministerial regulations

  • The Minister of Energy and Natural Resources has the authority to make technical and administrative changes to the Energy Efficiency Regulations for the purpose of maintaining harmonization between a requirement set out in those Regulations and that of a jurisdiction. This authority aims to reduce the amount of time required to harmonize with changes in another jurisdiction.
  • With Amendment 17, this authority has been enabled and energy-using products were specified in section 11.1 of the Energy Efficiency Regulations. That list has since been updated by subsequent amendments to include additional regulated products which have requirements harmonized with another jurisdiction so that Ministerial regulations can be used in the future when the policy is to maintain the harmonization of those requirements moving forward. In the future, the list of prescribed products could be updated again, based on the products and the policy intent.
  • Amending requirements for energy-using products via Ministerial regulations can be done with single-product small amendments or multi-product package amendments depending on timing and priorities.

Technical standards documents

  • The Energy Efficiency Regulations can incorporate by reference a technical standards document (TSD) when the purpose is to harmonize with another jurisdiction.
  • TDSs are published by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in both official languages. These documents may adapt, combine or reproduce, in whole or in part, documents that are produced by jurisdictions, standards development organizations or industry associations. They may set out requirements on testing standards, energy efficiency standards, and prescribed information for energy-using products.
  • Amendment 18 incorporated the first two TSDs into the Energy Efficiency Regulations. Going forward, these documents may be updated by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, and new ones may be incorporated into the Regulations through amendments to the Energy Efficiency Regulations. Stakeholders will have the opportunity to review and comments on any TSDs before they are incorporated into the Regulations and their final version is published on Natural Resources Canada’s TSDs webpage.

Based on the changes being considered for each energy-using product, and the authorities applicable to each tool, some of the products in the next amendments will follow either a typical Governor in Council pathway or make use of the Ministerial regulations authority. When an energy-using product is considered for a future amendment, the Forward Regulatory Plan and the technical bulletins would provide specific information about the tool being considered for each product.

More information

 
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