Canada’s proposed changes to vaping regulations now being debated in parliament
Amendments to the Excise Act, 2001 for vaping products, outlined in Bill C-59, Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, and tabled by the Canadian federal government on November 28, 2023 could see starting this year, changes for how a vaping product licensee can import unstamped vaping products for further manufacturing into the country.
According to the government, under proposed legislation, effective as of January 1, 2024, subsection 158.46(1) “will allow packaged vaping products manufactured in Canada to be stamped by the licensee that packaged the products by the end of the second calendar month following the calendar month in which the vaping products were packaged, if packaged after 2023.”
Bill C-59 received a first reading on November 20, 2023 and Jonathan Wilkinson, Liberal MP for North Vancouver (B.C.), “moved that Bill C-59, An Act to implement certain provisions of the fall economic statement tabled in Parliament on November 21, 2023 and certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 28, 2023, be read the second time and referred to a committee.”
Prior to January 1, 2024, section 158.46 provided that a vaping product licensee must stamp all vaping products intended for the duty-paid market at the time of packaging to indicate that the vaping duty has been paid. These amendments apply to domestically manufactured vaping products packaged after 2023, and to vaping products that imported into Canada or released under the Customs Act after 2023.
A vaping product license allows a person to manufacture vaping products. The proposed amendment to the Excise Act, 2001 will let an authorize a license holder import packaged vaping products for stamping by the person. Other amendments in Bill C-59 propose that if a licensee does not stamp a vaping product before the end of the month following the month when manufactured, the licensee will be required to have that vaping product placed into an excise warehouse. This measure would apply to vaping products manufactured in Canada packaged after 2023.
