Is your workplace WHMIS compliant? The deadline to meet changes regulating safety data sheets (SDSs), labels and related training requirements is fast approaching.

Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) is also currently undertaking proactive workplace visits to ensure compliance. These changes are a result of amendments to the federal Hazardous Products Regulations (HPR) which altered the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS).

Register now for $10 instructor-led, WHSC WHMIS training in a virtual classroom, updated to help participants understand and ensure compliance with new requirements.  

New supplier and employer obligations

The main purpose of the federal HPR is to require suppliers of hazardous products to provide health and safety information as a condition of sale, including SDSs and product labels. Suppliers must ensure their SDSs and labels comply with the HPR amendments by December 2025. Changes include:

• new information requirements on SDSs such as additional details on physical and chemical properties, along with disclosure of all hazardous ingredients present in a mixture at concentrations above the relevant cut-off levels, regardless of whether the hazardous ingredient contributes to the classification of the mixture as a hazardous product
• new physical hazard class (chemicals under pressure), and
• new hazard category for non-flammable aerosols and new subcategories for flammable gases.

Provincial and territorial law, including Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act and WHMIS Regulation (Reg. 860), establishes employer duties to obtain this information and ensure workers have access and can use it to protect their health and safety. This includes chemical ingredients of a hazardous product along with related potential health impacts, flammability and reactivity risks, measures to control or limit exposure and emergency response information.

Many suppliers of hazardous materials are already complying with the new requirements and providing workplaces with updated SDSs and labels. Until December 2025, employers must choose to fully comply with either the former HPR or the amended HPR, not a combination. For instance, the employer cannot store or use a hazardous product with an old label and an updated SDS.

New training obligations

Once transition to the amended HPR requirements is complete in the workplace, employers in every industry must ensure workers exposed or likely to be exposed to hazardous materials receive general WHMIS education that incorporates the amendments. Employers must also continue to provide training that is specific to workers’ jobs and workplace, including safety and emergency procedures related to hazardous materials.

WHSC can help with compliance

To assist workplaces seeking to fully understand and comply with the new WHMIS requirements, Workers Health & Safety Centre (WHSC) has updated our WHMIS training and scheduled delivery in our convenient instructor-led, real-time virtual classrooms. This cost-effective training is offered at just $10 for each participant and is intended for workers, supervisors and managers.  

Like all WHSC training, this program is highly interactive, applying adult learning principles to ensure learning is engaging, relevant and achieved. Upon successful completion of our WHMIS training program, WHSC issues a WHMIS record of training and maintains student records for any future requirement. 

Register Now 

Related resources
Amendments to the Hazardous Products Regulations impacting WHMIS?
WHMIS Regulations (Ontario. Reg. 860)
WHSC WHMIS resources

Don’t see scheduled WHMIS training suiting your needs? Contact any one of our Training Services Representatives located in communities across Ontario to discuss how we can help including bringing WHMIS training to your workplace where participant numbers warrant.

Need other essential and legally mandated training such as Joint Health and Safety Committee Certification, workplace violence and harassment, worker health and safety awareness, and supervisor awareness and competency?

Do you need WHMIS or any other training in French? Contact WHSC training services representative, Christopher Gervais at cgervais@whsc.on.ca or 613-407-2187.

Check out our complete in-person and virtual training schedule.

Need more information?
Contact a WHSC training services representative in your area.
Email: contactus@whsc.on.ca
Visit: whsc.on.ca
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