New rules `unworkable', manufacturers claim
BLINDS MAKERS HIT AT HEALTH CANADA AS NEW REGULATIONS TO PROTECT CHILDREN LEAVE INDUSTRY `IN TURMOIL'
Canadian manufacturers of window blinds are locked in a heated regulatory battle with the federal government, pushing back against new rules that they warn could unnecessarily wipe out massive swathes of their industry and cost thousands of jobs.
In a letter to Health Minister Patty Hajdu on Wednesday, the Window Covering Manufacturing Association warned that “flawed” regulations introduced by her department will force retailers to discontinue 88 per cent of the window blind products currently sold on Canadian shelves. The group estimates a total of 4,900 jobs will be lost as Canadian manufacturers are forced to halt major portions of their product lines.
The complaints come after Health Canada on May 1 imposed a new testing regime for window blinds to determine whether the products might be harmful to young children. Regulators in recent years have clamped down on cord-operated window coverings following numerous incidents in which toddlers or young children have strangled themselves in the braided nylon loops, sometimes causing death.
Ralph Vasami, executive director of the Window Covering Manufacturing Association, said Ottawa's “confusing and unworkable” new rules arbitrarily depart from North American standards.
He said Ontario-based Sunlight Window Coverings is preparing to go out of business following the regulatory change, while Quebec-based PCI Design can no longer manufacture compliant window shades. Another Alberta-based firm will have to shut down an entire wing of its manufacturing line.
“The window-covering industry is in turmoil,” Vasami said in an interview.
Their concerns have kicked off a lobbying effort for Ottawa to revert back to previous standards, which they say has been met with silence by federal officials after months of pleading.
Big box stores including Home Depot, Lowe's Canada, and Montreal-based home décor retailer Bouclair have also called on the federal government to make changes. Home Depot, Vasami said, estimates the policy change on window coverings will cost them between $1 million and $2 million per store across their roughly 180 storefronts.
“I've got dealers in Canada calling me, and I don't really have an answer for them because Health Canada just hasn't moved from its position.”
A spokesperson for Hajdu did not respond to questions that sought to clarify the justification for the changes, which introduce several new technical measures for how products are tested for safety.
U.S. regulators in 2018 outlawed corded blinds over safety concerns, prompting regulators in various other countries to follow suite. Window coverings sold in many countries, including Canada, are now required to be operated by a wand rather than a string, unless purchased through custom retailers.
A study by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2018 estimated that 16,827 children under the age of six had suffered window blind-related injuries between 1990 and 2015, most commonly by strangulation.
Rather than target cord-operated window coverings, the new regulations introduced by Health Canada are applied to the so-called “inner cords” that are weaved between slats. Under past safety tests, manufacturers would have to prove that their inner cords could withstand a pulling force of at least five pounds while not allowing an object roughly the size of a toddler's head to fit into the loop that is formed. Under the new guidelines, inner cords have to withstand pressure of more than eight pounds, pulled in any direction, without creating a loop of a certain circumference.
The seemingly innocuous change, Vasami said, has made new designs of window coverings nearly impossible to engineer for many firms. He said federal officials have declined to provide justification for the increased pull force threshold.
Other changes have also created consternation, including a new rule stipulating that custom-made corded window coverings cannot have a pull cord longer than 22 cm — a change that makes it difficult to manufacture for disabled people or other clients, he said.
The Window Covering Manufacturing Association estimates that more than 200 small and medium-sized companies could be impacted by the regulations.
“When most people hear it, their first reaction is, `you have to be kidding me,'” Vasami said. “And I get it, I understand that. But this is an industry that employs a lot of people, and has a lot of business in Canada, and across North America.”