CANADA – Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has administered the Marine Spark-Ignition Engine, Vessel and Off-Road Recreational Vehicle Emission Regulations (Regulations). These Regulations came into force in April 2011, and introduced standards to reduce smog-forming emissions from and reporting requirements for marine engines and vessels (i.e. outboard motor engines, personal watercraft engines, sterndrive and inboard engines and vessels powered by such engines with installed fuel lines or fuel tanks) and off-road recreational vehicles (i.e. snowmobiles, off-road motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles [ATVs] and utility vehicles).
What Canadians need to know
Anyone importing the above products into Canada for first retail sale must declare them under the Regulations prior to importation and submit an end of model year report due on June 1st of the following year. The Technical Guidance Document provides further guidance on these Regulations.
Pursuant to sections 37 and 38 of the Regulations, an Importation Declaration must be submitted to ECCC prior to importation, signed by the importer or their duly authorized representative. This can be fulfilled through the Canadian Border Services Agency’s Single Window Initiative (SWI).
Additionally, pursuant to section 33 of the Regulations, an End of Model Year report must be submitted no later than June 1st of the year following the products model year (e.g. by June 1st, 2023 an end of model year report must be submitted for 2022 model year products). If a company imports less than 100 engines or vehicles that are covered by these Regulations, they may use a simplified report. If a company imports more than 100 engines or vehicles they must perform fleet averaging calculations.
In order to help you navigate your reporting obligations, ECCC has created Excel programs that will generate your report for you once you have entered the required information. These forms are available through this folder.
Importers are urged to work with their import broker to confirm all regulatory requirements are met for respective imports either through the SWI or by providing the respective reports directly to ECCC.Â
As always, please reach out to our team should you have any questions regarding these regulations.