Canada Chemicals Management Plan
What is Canada's Chemicals Management Plan?
Canada's Chemicals Management Plan (CMP) is the federal government's programme for assessing and managing the health and environmental risks of chemical substances. It started in 2006, and Health Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) run it jointly. It works mainly under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999). The government describes it as assessing and, "where appropriate", managing "the potential health and ecological risks associated with substances prioritized for action" under CEPA 1999 [1].
Approach: I searched the Health Canada CMP substance pages (the Challenge, the Substance Groupings Initiative and phase 3 assessments). Those pages don't include a description of the programme as a whole, so that part comes from official Government of Canada pages I opened.
What it covers and how it started
- Launch and aim: The CMP was created in 2006. It is risk-based and brings federal work on new and existing substances together in one programme, including substances in everyday products such as food, cosmetics, drugs and drinking water (Health Canada overview).
- How substances were prioritised: By September 2006 the government had sorted about 23,000 existing substances on the Domestic Substances List (DSL). It identified roughly 4,300 priority substances that needed further assessment under CEPA (ECCC case study).
Phases
| Phase | Period | Approx. substances | Main initiatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2006–2011 | ~1,100 | The Challenge, released in batches. For example, BPA was in Batch 2 and was added to CEPA Schedule 1 by a final order dated October 13, 2010 [4]. |
| 2 | 2011–2016 | ~1,650 | Substance Groupings Initiative (e.g. cobalt, selenium and substituted diphenylamine groups). Selection was based on the 2006 categorization plus new information from phase 1 [5][6]. |
| 3 | 2016–2021 | ~1,550 | Group and "approach" assessments, e.g. 83 petroleum substances [1] |
Phase periods and substance counts come from the ECCC case study.
How it works
- Assessment outcome: Each screening assessment concludes whether a substance meets the "toxic" criteria in section 64 of CEPA. Substances found toxic are added to Schedule 1 of CEPA (ECCC case study). One recent example found that 72 substances do not meet the section 64 criteria, while two of them are subject to Significant New Activity (SNAc) provisions [7].
- Risk management tools: Regulations, agreements, pollution prevention notices, labelling requirements, guidelines and codes of practice (Health Canada overview).
- Other core work: The New Substances Program, mandatory information gathering under section 71 of CEPA, and monitoring and surveillance (ECCC case study). Recent section 71 notices include "CMP 2023" (June 2023) and "CMP 2026 – Phase 1" (August 2026) [7].
Progress figures (as of July–December 2017, the latest progress report I opened) (CMP progress report):
- 3,331 of the 4,300 priority chemicals had been addressed in draft or final assessments.
- 420 existing chemicals had been found harmful to the environment and/or human health.
- 80 risk management actions had been implemented for existing chemicals.
- About 5,671 new-substance notifications had been received, with over 283 risk management actions taken on them.
- At that time, the government had begun planning for chemicals management after 2020.
Current status: The programme is still active. Health Canada says the CMP "will assess additional chemical substances and manage identified risks" (Health Canada overview). CMP substance pages were still being updated in 2026 [3].
Sources:
How do I check a substance's assessment status?
To check a substance's CMP assessment status, look it up by CAS RN and chemical name in five Canadian federal sources, roughly in this order: the Domestic Substances List (DSL), the CMP substance pages, the CEPA Environmental Registry (Canada Gazette notices), CEPA Schedule 1, and then the risk management notices. The status is the most recent assessment decision published in the Gazette, plus whether the substance has been added to Schedule 1. I ran each step for bisphenol A (BPA) so you can see what each source gives you.
Approach: I searched the ECCC DSL/NDSL inventory, the Health Canada CMP pages (Challenge, Substance Groupings Initiative, phase 3), the CEPA Environmental Registry and CEPA Schedule 1.
Step by step, with BPA as the example
| Step | Source | What it tells you | BPA result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Confirm the inventory entry | DSL / NDSL | Whether the substance is an existing substance in Canadian commerce. That decides whether it falls under existing-substances assessment or the New Substances Program. | On the DSL (CAS 80-05-7) as an "Existing Substance" in commerce in Canada between 1984 and 1986 [8] |
| 2. Find the CMP page | Challenge batch pages, Substance Groupings pages, phase 3 assessment pages | Which phase or initiative it was assessed under, plus follow-up work such as information gathering, monitoring and effectiveness reviews | Batch 2 of the Challenge. The page records a section 71 notice from November 2021, a 2020 technical consultation on BPA substitutes, and a July 2020 evaluation of how effective the risk management measures have been [4] |
| 3. Read the assessment decisions | CEPA Environmental Registry (Canada Gazette Part I) | The formal record: the draft screening assessment published under subsection 77(1) and the final decision under subsection 77(6) | Draft published 19 April 2008 [9]; final decision published 18 October 2008 [10] |
| 4. Check whether it was found "toxic" | CEPA Schedule 1 | Whether it has been added to the List of Toxic Substances | Listed in Part 2 as item 86, "Phenol, 4,4′-(1-methylethylidene)bis-, which has the molecular formula C15H16O2" [11]. The proposed order adding it was published 16 May 2009 [12] |
| 5. See what risk management followed | Environmental Registry (notices, orders, regulations) | Pollution prevention plans, regulations, SNAc orders, section 71 surveys | Pollution prevention plan notice for BPA in industrial effluents: proposed 16 October 2010, final 14 April 2012 [13][14]; section 71 notice on BPA and its analogues and alternatives, 13 November 2021 [15] |
Practical tips
- Search Schedule 1 by the chemical name, not the CAS RN or common name. Searching "80-05-7" and "bisphenol A" both found nothing. BPA is listed under the CA Index-style name "Phenol, 4,4′-(1-methylethylidene)bis-" [11].
- Search the Gazette titles by CAS RN. The assessment notices put the CAS number in their titles (e.g. "CAS No. 80-05-7"), so the CAS RN is the most reliable way to find them [10].
- Read the decision terms correctly. "77(1)" means a draft assessment is out for comment. "77(6)" means the final decision has been published. A Schedule 1 listing means the substance was found toxic under section 64. A final decision without a Schedule 1 listing usually means it was found not toxic, sometimes with SNAc provisions attached, as with the 72 low-concern substances in the earlier answer.
- Don't confuse similar entries. A DSL keyword search on "4,4'-isopropylidenediphenol" brought up a masked-name epoxy reaction product (Confidential Accession No. 18633-3), not BPA itself [16]. Always match on the exact CAS RN.
- If there's no CMP page or Gazette decision, the substance may never have been prioritised, may be covered by a group or approach assessment under a class name, or may still be awaiting assessment. In that case, also search by the group name, such as "cobalt" or "petroleum substances".
If you give me a CAS RN or a list of them, I can run all five checks and put the results in a status table.