Substantiating Information

Information Substantiating a Claim for Exemption

When submitting a claim for exemption, please ensure that the information listed below is available as you may be requested to provide it at a later date.

• This information is required only at the request of a screening officer under subsection 13(1.1) of the Hazardous Materials Information Review Act (HMIRA), for the purpose of substantiating a claim for exemption from the disclosure of confidential business information (CBI).
• At this time, the Commission randomly selects 30% of its new claims to provide Substantiating Information. Currently, these claims are selected 30 days after a Notice of Filing a Claim for Exemption is published in the Canada Gazette.

***Please note that there are no fees associated with submitting Substantiating Information.

If you have been requested to provide the substantiating information, please ensure that all the information below is included in your reply:

• The number of employees, officers or directors who have knowledge of or access to the information;
• The number of persons inside or outside Canada, other than persons referred to in the previous point, who have knowledge of or access to the information, and the reasons why;
• The details of the measures implemented in order to restrict knowledge of or access to the information, including the measures relating to site security, document security and computer security which have been implemented for that purpose;
• Whether or not each person who has knowledge of or access to the information has signed a confidentiality agreement in respect of that information;
• If you claimed that the research and development expenses incurred in developing the controlled product were substantial, a statement indicating the amount of money spent or other business resources used to develop the information; and
• Reasons why that amount or those resources are considered to be substantial in the circumstances.

Also, since the estimated value of the material financial loss to the claimant OR the estimated value of the material financial gain to the claimant's competitors was provided in PART IV, question 3A or 3B of the original submission of your claim, you must now provide:

• The method of calculation used to determine that value, and an explanation of why the claimant considers that the financial loss would be material; OR alternatively, why the claimant considers that the financial gain would be material.

It is mandatory to use a profit-oriented financial estimate approach or a net figure (gross profit, contribution margin, operating income, net income, etc.) in order to estimate the material financial loss. The claimant then estimates percentage of the sales that would be lost if the information were disclosed on the MSDS. The material financial loss is the net figure times the percentage of lost sales. The concept of materiality relates to the importance of loss to the company, business unit or product line.

In the case where the claimant is estimating financial gain to a competitor, the claimant may use its own profit figures as a guide in estimating the potential gain if it is unaware of those which would actually apply to a competitor or competitors. The concept of materiality relates to the importance of gain to the competitor, whether it be to the company as a whole, one of its business units or product lines.