Transport Canada, the government agency that regulates travel, transportation, and product importation into Canada, recently announced it would crack down on how recreation vehicles can be imported into the country.
Basically, responsibility for ensuring that imported RVs comply with a multitude of Canadian laws lies with RV dealers, not the company that built the units, according to Transport Canada. In fact, the dealer must maintain records that the units and its components have been tested to ensure compliance with those laws.
However dealers can assign that responsibility to a middleman—or distributor—for every brand they carry. That distributor then becomes the singular depository for records ensuring that the RVs comply with Canadian import restrictions.
Unfortunately, as one dealer has noted, that restriction does not apply to Canadian citizens who cross the border, buy an RV, and transport it back to Canada.
"They are now expecting us to have a distributor for each manufacturer, which is obviously going to raise costs," one Canadian RV dealer pointed out. "It will also put Canadian dealers at a disadvantage to competing with U.S. dealers as I am sure there will be no enforcement for private individuals."
The RV Dealers Association of Canada has sent a letter to its members outlining concerns dealers have expressed regarding their status on Transport Canada's pre-clearance list for importers. Here are the key points of the new Transport Canada rules:
- Transport Canada has no jurisdiction in the United States and has no recourse against U.S. manufacturers. It is the dealer's responsibility to make sure that the units comply with the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (CMVSS); not the U.S. manufacturer's.
- Transport Canada is auditing the RV Industry. It has not done so in a long time and feels that there are too many dealer assigned pre-clearance without their understanding of the requirements.
- Dealers must be able to understand compliance and attest that the units meet these standards. Should a dealership not have the technical expertise to review the documents, then a compliance safety engineer should be hired to review and sign off on them.
- Dealers will need to supply and keep records of compliance testing on file for all imported units.
RVDA Canada also provided members with an excerpt from a letter sent to the association by Transport Canada outlining its position on requiring a central point of distribution for RVs imported into Canada.
Worth Pondering…
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
—Albert Einstein
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