. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/CAN/263 
20 May 2009  
 (09-2475) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English/ 
 French 
 
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  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 [   ], 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: 43.020, 43.040) 
5. Title, number of pages and langua ge(s) of the notified document:  Proposed Amendment 
to the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations (various amendments)   (8 pages, available in English and French).  
6. Description of content:  This proposed amendment w ould introduce several minor 
amendments to the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulat ions to clarify and correct various existing 
Regulations. In addition, this amendment w ould introduce a new means of calculating the 
designated seating capacity to include the space  designed for use by a person in a wheelchair. 
This new means of calculating the designate d seating capacity is required to properly 
establish the prescribed class of a vehicle that has several wheelchair spaces.  
Description  
This amendment proposes a number of minor adjustments to the existing Regulations to 
correct inconsistencies between the English and Fr ench versions, make clarifications of intent, 
and reflect new technology, including  
• clarifying the French version of the definitions of “autobus scolaire”, “masse du véhicule 
sans charge”, and “type de moteur” and the E nglish version of “engine  type” in subsection 
2(1) of the Regulations;  
• replacing “identifying classifi cation” and “catégorie” in paragraphs 15(1)(b) and 15(2)(a) of 
the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations by “prescri bed class” and “catégorie réglementaire”, to 
clarify that these provisions were intended to re fer only to the vehicles prescribed by schedule 
III;  G/TBT/N/CAN/263 
Page 2  
 
  • updating the references in several Canadian sa fety standards to allow manufacturers to use 
more recent versions of industry standards su ch as the American So ciety for Testing and 
Materials (ASTM) standards;  
• amending the Canadian safety standard 123, Motorcycle Controls and Displays, by 
exempting passenger footrests from the requireme nt of being foldable when not in use;  
• amending the Canadian safety standard 305, Electrolyte Spillage and Electrical Shock 
Protection, which prescribes cras h testing requirements for electr ic vehicles, by clarifying the 
minimum voltage to identify an electric vehicle which requires testing, distinguishing between direct and alte rnating electric circuits and also  updating its expiration date for a 
further five-year period. This change would offer more flexibility to manufacturers to 
implement new technology;  
• amending section 401 so that it refers to the definition “back door” (porte arrière) noted in 
the Technical Standards Document 401; and  
• removing the terms “heavy-duty vehicle” (véhic ule lourd) and “light- duty vehicle” (véhicule 
léger) referred to in Schedule V.1 to the Regulations and instead referring to specific vehicles 
since the meaning of thes e terms is not co nsistent among the industry.  
This amendment would introduce a new means of calculating the designat ed seating capacity 
of a vehicle to include the space designed fo r use by a person in a wheelchair. This would 
assist in properly classifying vehicles equippe d with any space designed for use by a person in 
a wheelchair. The space required for a wheelchair limits the seating capacity of a vehicle, which is one of the variables used to determine its vehicle class. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Protection of human safety  
8. Relevant documents:   Canada Gazette, Part I, 2 Ma y 2009, Pages 1368-1375 (available in 
English and French)  
Transport Canada Web site:  http://www.tc.gc.ca/act s-regulations/regula tions/crc-c1038/menu.htm 
 (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. 
10. Final date for comments:  16 July 2009 
11. Text available from: National enquiry point [  ], or address, telephone and fax numbers, 
e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:    
The electronic version of the regulat ory text can be downloaded at:  
http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-p r/p1/2009/2009-05-02/pdf/g1-14318.pdf  (Canada Gazette) 
or  http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/ p1/2009/2009-05-02/html/reg1-eng.html
 (English)  
http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/ p1/2009/2009-05-02/html/reg1-fra.html  (French)