WHMIS Overview

Introduced as law in 1988, WHMIS is built on three core pillars: Labels. Every hazardous product used or stored in a Canadian workplace must carry a standardized label that identifies the product, the supplier, the hazards present, and key safety precautions. Safety Data Sheets (SDS). Each hazardous product must have an accompanying Safety Data Sheet — a detailed, 16-section technical document covering everything from chemical composition and health effects to first aid procedures, storage requirements, and disposal instructions. An SDS must be accessible to every worker who handles or may be exposed to the product. Worker education and training. Employers are legally required to train all workers who work with or near hazardous products. Training must be workplace-specific — it cannot simply be a generic online course. Workers must understand the hazards in their specific workplace, how to read the labels and SDS for the products they use, and the procedures that protect them. WHMIS is not enforced by a single government body. It operates through interlocking federal, provincial, and territorial legislation. Health Canada regulates how suppliers classify, label, and produce SDS documents. Provincial and territorial occupational health and safety (OHS) agencies regulate how employers implement WHMIS in the workplace. For federally regulated workplaces — banks, telecommunications, interprovincial transportation — the Canada Labour Code applies. WHMIS applies to any product classified as a "hazardous product" under the Hazardous Products Act. Some categories are exempt, including explosives (regulated under the Explosives Act), cosmetics, drugs, and food products — though employers must still train workers on those products' health effects even when WHMIS labels and SDS are not required.

GHS — the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals — is the international standard, developed by the United Nations, for classifying chemical hazards and communicating them through consistent labels and safety data sheets. WHMIS 2015 aligned Canada's system with GHS: the hazard classes, red-diamond pictograms, signal words, and the standardized 16-section SDS used in Canadian workplaces today all come from GHS. Alignment does not mean Canada adopted GHS wholesale. WHMIS keeps Canadian-specific requirements — bilingual labels and SDSs, supplier identification rules, and hazard classes such as Biohazardous Infectious Materials that go beyond the UN system. GHS provides the common framework; the Hazardous Products Act and its regulations define how it applies in Canada.

WHMIS 1988 was Canada's original system: eight hazard symbols in round borders, a 9-section MSDS, and Canadian-only classification rules. WHMIS 2015 incorporated GHS — new hazard classes and red-diamond pictograms, standardized label elements (signal word, hazard statements, precautionary statements), and the 16-section SDS in a fixed order replacing the MSDS. The transition ended on December 1, 2018. Since then, every hazardous product sold into or used in a Canadian workplace must carry WHMIS 2015-compliant labels and SDSs — a leftover MSDS in a binder is an out-of-date document, not a compliant one.

The most significant recent change is the December 2022 amendment to the Hazardous Products Regulations, which moved Canada to a newer revision of GHS. It added the Chemicals Under Pressure hazard class and a non-flammable aerosols category, refined the classification of flammable gases, and adjusted required label and SDS content. Suppliers had a transition period that ended on December 14, 2025 — since that date, every hazardous product entering a Canadian workplace must be classified, labelled, and documented under the amended rules. That is why revised SDSs are arriving from suppliers now, and why older sheets in your library need replacing as they do.

An MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) is the WHMIS 1988-era document: nine sections, with no fixed order of information between suppliers. An SDS (Safety Data Sheet) is its WHMIS 2015 replacement: sixteen sections in a fixed, internationally standardized order — identification first, hazard identification second, and so on — so a worker can find first-aid measures or handling precautions in the same place on every sheet. MSDSs ceased to be valid when the WHMIS 2015 transition ended in 2018. If a product in your workplace still has only an MSDS on file, it needs a current SDS from the supplier.

WHMIS enforcement is divided between two levels of government. Health Canada enforces WHMIS at the supplier level under the Hazardous Products Act (HPA) and Hazardous Products Regulations (HPR). Any company that manufactures, imports, packages, or sells a hazardous product for Canadian workplace use is subject to Health Canada's authority for product classification, label content, and SDS compliance. Provincial and territorial OHS agencies enforce WHMIS in the workplace - once a product enters a workplace, jurisdiction passes to the relevant provincial or territorial government body. In Ontario: Ministry of Labour under the OHSA. In BC: WorkSafeBC. In Alberta: OHS officers under the OHS Act. In Quebec: CNESST. In Saskatchewan: OHS Division of the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety. Similar bodies exist in every other province and territory. For federally regulated workplaces, enforcement is handled by the Labour Program within Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) under the Canada Labour Code. A Canadian employer is accountable to two separate regulatory authorities: Health Canada for the products they purchase and their SDS, and their provincial OHS regulator for how they manage those products and train their workers.

Yes. WHMIS applies in federally regulated workplaces — banks, telecommunications, broadcasting, interprovincial and international transportation, and the federal public service — through Part II of the Canada Labour Code and its regulations. The difference is enforcement: instead of a provincial OHS agency, the Labour Program at Employment and Social Development Canada inspects and enforces. The substantive duties — labels, current SDSs, worker training — mirror those in provincially regulated workplaces.

Under the Hazardous Products Regulations, supplier labels and SDSs must be available in both English and French — either as bilingual documents or as separate English and French versions. Quebec workplaces face additional French-language obligations under provincial law. Training follows its own rule, backed by OHS legislation: workers must be trained in a way they actually understand, which in many workplaces means delivering WHMIS education in more than one language.

The Hazardous Products Act is the federal statute at the foundation of WHMIS. It prohibits selling or importing a hazardous product for Canadian workplace use unless the product is classified under the Act's hazard criteria, carries a compliant label, and is accompanied by a compliant safety data sheet. The technical detail lives in the Hazardous Products Regulations made under the Act — hazard classes and categories, label elements, and the 16-section SDS format. Health Canada administers and enforces both at the supplier level.

WHMIS and TDG regulate the same substances at different moments. WHMIS governs hazardous products while they are used, stored, and handled inside a workplace — classification, workplace labels, SDSs, and worker training. TDG (Transportation of Dangerous Goods) governs them in transit by road, rail, air, or marine, with its own classification system, shipping documents, placards, and training certificates. Many products are subject to both regimes: a drum of solvent travels under TDG rules and, once received into your facility, falls under WHMIS — which is why receiving areas often need staff trained in both.