. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/N/CAN/359 
22 February 2012  
 (12-1018) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English/ 
 French 
 
 
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member:  CANADA  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  Department of Transport 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :  Canadian Enquiry 
Point, 200-270 Albert Street, Ottawa, Ontari o, Canada, K1P 6N7 Tel.:  +1 613 238 3222, 
Fax:  +1 613 569 7808, E-mail:  enquirypoint@scc.ca  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [X], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Motor Vehicles 
(ICS: 43.040) 
5. Title, number of pages and langua ge(s) of the notified document:  Proposed Amendment 
to the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations (Inte rpretation, Section 18 and Standards 203, 204, 
208, 212 and 219) (18 pages, availabl e in English and French)     
6. Description of content:  Section 208 of Schedule IV of the Motor Vehicle Safety 
Regulations,  hereafter referred to as Canadian safety standard 208, Occupant Restraint 
Systems in Frontal Impact , has many areas of misalignment  with the corresponding safety 
standard in the United States.  
Differences include the 50th percentile adult male barrier test speed and in jury criteria, the 5th 
percentile adult female static and dynamic test s, other out-of-position tests and the seat belt 
requirements in the rear inboard position. In a ddition, the current exceptions for disabled 
persons in Canadian safety st andard 208 are too restrictive an d thus only account for certain 
types of disabilities. 
To enhance vehicle safety and align Canadian  regulatory requirements more closely with 
those in the United States, it is proposed to revoke and replace the occupant protection 
requirements of th e Canadian safety standard 208.  
Industry stakeholders have raised concer ns that Canadian safety standards 204, Steering 
Column Rearward Displacement;  212, Windshield Mounting  and 219, Windshield Zone 
Intrusion  have a slightly different test setup proced ure than that of the United States with 
regards to the use of anthropomorphic test devi ces (crash test dummie s). It is proposed to 
update these standards to more closely al ign with the United States standards. G/TBT/N/CAN/359 
Page 2  
 
  Canadian safety standard 203, Driver Impact Protection and Steering Control System  would 
require a reference update due to the proposed  changes to Canadian safety standard 208. 
Finally, many Canadian safety standards require  certain information to be contained in the 
vehicle owner's manual. The prov isions regarding the owner's ma nual itself are not very clear 
and thus require clarification. The proposal to add section 18 to the Motor Vehicle Safety 
Regulations  is intended to clarify that both the pr ovision of the information and the form and 
manner in which it is disseminat ed are regulatory requirements. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Protection of human safety  
8. Relevant documents:   Canada Gazette , Part I, 11 February 2012, Pages 249-266 (Available 
in English and French)   
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    Normally within 5 to 8 months of publication in 
the Canada Gazette , Part I. 
These Regulations come into force on the day on which they are published in the Canada 
Gazette, Part II. 
Transitional provision:  Until 
1 September 2014, buses, trucks, enclosed 
motorcycles, multi-purpo se passenger vehicles, 
passenger cars and three- wheeled vehicles may 
conform to the requirement s of section 208 as it 
read on the day before the day on which this subsection came into force. 
10. Final date for comments:  26 April 2012 
11. Text available from:  National enquiry point [ X], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addres ses, if available of the other body:   The electronic 
version of the regulatory text can be downloaded at:   
http://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2012 /2012-02-11/pdf/g1-14606.pdf#page=75 (Canada 
Gazette) 
or  http://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/ p1/2012/2012-02-11/html/reg3-eng.html  (English)  
http://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/ p1/2012/2012-02-11/html/reg3-fra.html  (French) 
The TSD documents are available in English and French on Transport Canada's Website: 
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/roadsafety/safe vehicles-mvstm_tsd -index_e-629.htm#tsd