FAQs Answered

Northern Certification provides Canadian Representative Services for manufacturers located outside Canada, as required for applicable equipment certification and registration processes administered by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), formerly Industry Canada. This includes representation under ISED’s RSP-100 procedure for radio equipment certification and DC-01 procedure for terminal equipment registration.

We also coordinate the approval and registration processes themselves, including ISED/IC certification for radio equipment sold in Canada, FCC certification for the United States, and pesticide registration with Health Canada’s PMRA and the US EPA.

Both. Our Canadian Representative Services are offered at fixed prices because the scope of the service is predictable. Certification and registration work — including ISED/IC, FCC, PMRA, and EPA — is quoted on a per-product basis, since the requirements depend on your product and the technical documentation and test data you already have.

No. Testing must be performed by an appropriately accredited laboratory, and we are not a testing laboratory. What we do is coordinate the testing process: identify which tests your product actually needs, determine what gaps exist in the data you already have, arrange the work with a suitable laboratory, and make sure the resulting reports support the submission route you are filing under.

Paying for the wrong tests is one of the more common — and more expensive — mistakes in this process.

Yes. In many cases, handling both markets together is more efficient and can reduce the overall cost. For radio equipment, much of the test data used for an ISED certification can also support an FCC filing. For pest control products, the PMRA and EPA data requirements overlap in some areas, so a package planned for both markets can often make use of the same studies rather than duplicating them.

Tell us about both markets up front, and we can plan the work accordingly.

Manufacturers with a company address outside of Canada will require a Canadian representative in order to obtain and maintain ISED certifications (Telecommunication and radio devices). You must have Canadian Representative for the entire period that the certified product is offered on the Canadian market. See RSP-100, Section 4.1 below:

A Canadian representative is required when the applicant’s company address is not within Canada. The applicant shall provide a signed Application and Agreement for Certification Services in which the details of the company representative in Canada shall be clearly identified.

A Canadian Representative is a company or individual physically located in Canada who is designated to act as the Canadian point of contact for a manufacturer or applicant located outside Canada. The representative must be available to respond to ISED inquiries and provide audit samples to ISED at no charge.

For radio equipment, a Canadian Representative is required when the applicant’s company address is outside Canada under ISED’s RSP-100 certification procedure. The representative is responsible for responding to ISED inquiries regarding the certified products and providing audit samples when requested. See RSP-100, Section 4.1 below:

The Canadian representative shall be responsible for responding to all enquiries from ISED regarding the certified product(s), including providing audit samples at no charge to ISED. The applicant shall have a valid Application and Agreement for Certification Services for as long as the certified product is offered on the Canadian market.

For telecommunications terminal equipment, a Canadian Representative is similarly required under DC-01 when the applicant’s company address is outside Canada. The representative’s responsibilities include responding to ISED inquiries regarding registered terminal equipment and providing audit samples at no charge. See DC-01 below:

The Canadian representative shall be responsible for responding to all enquiries from ISED regarding the registered terminal equipment(s), including providing audit samples at no charge to ISED. The applicant shall have a valid Declaration of conformity (DoC) and registration of terminal products for as long as the terminal equipment registered with ISED is offered on the Canadian market.

In both cases, the Canadian Representative arrangement must remain valid for as long as the applicable certified or registered products are offered on the Canadian market.

We’ve recently updated our pricing model to offer product lifetime representation on our standard plans. For other pricing options, please contact us.

Yes. Northern Certification is a participant in the ISED Blockchain Pilot Project, anchoring the electronic documents we issue to the blockchain so that their integrity can be independently verified by customers and regulators alike. As part of this program, the Letters of Attestation we issue for Canadian Representative service may carry a QR code on the front page, giving you, ISED, and your Certification Body an easy way to confirm authenticity and integrity with a single scan.

See our ISED Canadian Representative page for more on how this works.

No, the blockchain QR code for authenticity verification is not required at this time. Although ISED engineers have begun encouraging its use, it is not an official requirement described in RSP-100 or DC-01, and remains completely up to the applicant’s discretion. If you would like the QR code added, let us know.

No. Payment is not required in advance — we invoice you only after we issue the countersigned service agreement and your Canadian Representative Letter of Attestation.

Payment can be made via PayPal or wire transfer. Detailed instructions will be provided in the accompanying invoice once we issue the countersigned Letter of Attestation and service agreement.

Generally, products containing radio equipment (i.e. intentional emittance of radio waves) are classified as category I equipment by ISED and must undergo Certification which involves obtaining a Technical Acceptance Certificate (TAC) issued by an ISED recognized Certification Body and listed in ISED’s database, the Radio Equipment List (REL). Otherwise they can not be manufactured, imported, distributed, leased, offered for sale, sold, installed or used in Canada.

Examples of Category I equipment include: broadcast transmitters, taxi and police push-to-talk radios, point-to-point broadband links (used for backhaul), cellular networks and cellphones, and most wireless consumer products such as Wi-Fi devices, baby monitors and Bluetooth devices. These devices must be labelled with the certification number they are given.

Certain equipment falls under category II and might be license-exempt. For detailed information on Canadian Technical Equipment Standards, please visit the ISED webpage.

ISED does not issue most radio equipment certifications directly. Instead, recognized Certification Bodies (CBs) review submission packages and issue the certification. Your completed package — test reports and supporting documents — goes to a CB for final approval, and the CB is who raises any deficiencies. We can assist with that submission and with responding to whatever the CB comes back with.

IC and ISED are pretty much the same thing. IC stands for Industry Canada. It changed its name to Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada in November 2015. However a lot of people are still calling it IC because they got used to it. So the formal name is ISED but you can still call it IC.

This is a 5 digit number “xxxxx” that ISED assigns to your company. It is required for ISED application. If your company does not have it yet, you can go to the following website to apply for it:
https://sms-sgs.ic.gc.ca/registration/applicationWizard?

Apply as “New Applicant” under ” Equipment Certification and Terminal Registration “. Proceed step by step and submit the application. Normally you will get the company number within one week.

ISED Certification Number is also called IC ID. This number is defined by yourself. The Certification Number is in the format of XXXXX-YYYYYYYYYYY.

The first part XXXXX is your company number which we have explained above. The second part YYYYYYYYYYY is a number defined by you. It can only include the capital letters A-Z and the numbers 0-9. It can be 11 digits maximum. For your information, a lot of people just choose to use the product model number as the second part of the Certification Number.

The Hardware Version Identification Number (HVIN) identifies hardware specs of a product version. Basically the HVIN is just your product model number.

Radio Standards Procedure RSP-100 is issued by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED); it outlines the certification procedure for radio apparatus and broadcasting equipment. Applicants must follow RSP-100 in order to be certified by ISED. This includes providing a Canadian Representative if the applicant’s company address is not within Canada. See the ISED website for the complete requirements.

Procedure for Declaration of Conformity and Registration of Terminal Equipment DC-01 is issued by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED); it outlines the certification procedure for suppliers of telecommunications terminal equipment. Applicants must follow DC-01 in order to be certified by ISED. This includes providing a Canadian Representative if the applicant’s company address is not within Canada. See the ISED website for the complete requirements.

If your company moved to a new address, you will need to update your registered company address with ISED. You can check your current registered address here:

https://sms-sgs.ic.gc.ca/equipmentSearch/searchCompanyNames?

Enter your company name, and click “Search”, you will see your registered address in the IC database.

To update your registered address, just need to send an email request to certificationbureau-bureauhomologation@ised-isde.gc.ca. They will update the IC database for you.

They are the two routes to FCC certification. Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC) is a self-declaration backed by test data the responsible party keeps on file. Certification is the stricter route, required for most intentional radiators, and runs through an accredited Telecommunication Certification Body (TCB) rather than through the FCC directly. Which one applies is determined by your device and the rule part it falls under — establishing that early is part of our compliance strategy work.

No. US filings can require a responsible party or designated agent located in the United States, and our in-house representative service covers Canada only. We will tell you where that requirement applies to your filing and what it involves, but you will need to arrange that representation separately.

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency is the branch of Health Canada that regulates pest control products under the Pest Control Products Act. With limited exceptions, a pest control product must be registered before it can be imported, sold or used in Canada — and that applies to the product as a whole, so a formulation built entirely from already-registered active ingredients still needs its own registration. See our PMRA Registration page for what a submission involves.

Yes, if the applicant or registrant does not reside in Canada. Under section 62(2) of the Pest Control Products Act, a non-Canadian applicant or registrant must designate a representative who resides in Canada and inform the Minister of that designation. The representative receives regulatory correspondence, notices and other documents on the applicant’s or registrant’s behalf.

The Pest Control Products Regulations, section 6(1)(a) also requires the application to identify the applicant and, where applicable, the representative, including their names and addresses.

PMRA also requires the Canadian representative’s address to be used as the regulatory mailing address for non-Canadian registrants. We can provide or coordinate the required Canadian representative and manage PMRA regulatory correspondence on the registrant’s behalf — see our PMRA Canadian Representative service.

The US Environmental Protection Agency registers pesticide products under FIFRA, and a pesticide generally must be registered before it can be distributed or sold in the United States. The shape of the review is similar to the PMRA’s — chemistry, toxicology, environmental effects and the proposed label — but the agencies are separate and each registration stands on its own. The data requirements overlap substantially, which is why products headed for both markets are worth planning together rather than sequentially.

Not necessarily. EPA registration provides federal authorization. You generally must also register the product in each State/Territory where you intend to sell or distribute it. State requirements vary. Our experts are ready to help determine State/Territory requirements — please contact us.

EPA’s annual maintenance fee applies to active and suspended registrations under FIFRA sections 3 and 24(c), subject to applicable exemptions, waivers and other provisions. The fee amount can change from year to year.

No. They are separate. The EPA maintenance fee maintains the applicable federal pesticide registration. State registration fees maintain the product’s registration under the individual state’s pesticide program.

No. PRIA fees are generally associated with particular EPA registration actions and their review, while the annual maintenance fee is a recurring fee for maintaining applicable pesticide registrations. EPA maintains separate fee programs for these purposes.

No. State registration requirements, fees and renewal schedules differ by jurisdiction. A company selling nationally may therefore have several different state renewal dates during the year. EPA specifically directs registrants to apply separately for state registration after federal approval.

Yes. Federal and state registrations are separate. A product can remain federally registered while its registration in an individual state requires renewal or has lapsed under that state’s requirements.

Yes. We can maintain the federal and state compliance calendar, track deadlines and fees, prepare the required filings, and coordinate renewals so that an otherwise active product does not lapse because of a missed state/territorial or federal maintenance requirement. This is part of our EPA registration service, and we can take it on for a product someone else registered too.

A Medical Device Licence (MDL) authorizes a specific Class II, III or IV medical device for sale in Canada. A Medical Device Establishment Licence (MDEL) authorizes an establishment to import or distribute medical devices in Canada and applies to manufacturers of Class I devices that sell or distribute their own devices.

They are separate requirements. For example, a company importing a Class II device generally needs both the device’s MDL and an MDEL for its importing activity. See Canada Medical Device Licensing.