The Canadian government on 8 April tabled legislation designed to improve the level of protection for workers handling hazardous materials in the workplace. Specifically, the proposed changes to the Hazardous Products Act would adopt the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals for workplace chemicals, which is currently being implemented by the United States and various other countries. The government indicates that the purpose of GHS is to promote both workplace safety and international trade by applying classification of workplace chemicals and safety information requirements that are globally accepted. Among other things, the standardised hazard symbols, signal words and hazard statements are expected to improve the communication of hazard information; the GHS will identify hazards not addressed under the current system; and more detailed information on hazardous products will be provided to employees and employers.

A key objective of the implementation of GHS, which the U.S. and Canada have committed to implement by 1 June 2015, is to create a system that would, to a great extent, allow the use of a single North American label and safety data sheet for each hazardous product. While Canada and the United States are working to keep regulatory variances to a minimum, there will be some, such as bi-lingual labels in Canada.