News

A guiding objective for the Ontario Sign Association is to contribute to the operational effectiveness and viability of the sign industry in Ontario and to be the provincial voice of authority on regulatory matters. As such, along with the Sign Association of Canada's Government Relations team, the OSA has been in discussions with City of Toronto to produce a standard set of sign type drawings, which, among other benefits, would help fast track the sign permit application process.

On March 19, 2019, the Ontario Sign Association posted a Request for Propoal (and sent it out to the membership) seeking an engineering firm to produce drawings of standard sign types. These drawings would be used exclusively by Sign Association members to accompany permit applications to the City of Toronto.

This is the first step in a process whereby the City will fast track the permit process for applications accompanied by these drawings. Each drawing would be used multiple times by Sign Association members over a period of multiple years. Going forward it is likely that the number of drawings will increase.

Ideally, these drawings would form a platform for future versions of the drawings that would be used elsewhere in Ontario (we have had discussions also with other interested cities in Ontario) and Canada by the Sign Association of Canada.

The RFQ period will close on April 9, 2019.  We will keep our members posted as this process progresses.   

The Products Containing Mercury Regulations (the regulations) were published in the Canada Gazette, Part II, on November 19, 2014 and came into force on November 8, 2015^tnote1. The regulations prohibit the import and manufacture of products containing mercury or any of its compounds, with some exemptions for essential products which have no technically or economically viable alternatives (e.g., certain medical and research applications, and dental amalgam). In the case of lamps, such as fluorescent lamps, rather than prohibiting them, the regulations set a limit on the amount of mercury that they can contain.

However, based on more current information and further consultations with industry stakeholders, ECCC are now considering prohibiting the manufacture and import of straight fluorescent lamp (LFL) in 2028. For more information on their latest thinking, please find attached a summary of changes since the consultation document was published. It should also be noted that the publication date of the proposed amendments in Part 1 of the Canada Gazette has now been pushed to Spring 2019.  

For the full summary, please see here.