'Made in Canada' vs. 'Product of Canada' — What's the difference?
How to make sense of product labels amid the push to buy domestic goods
The push to buy Canadian has turned out to be more complicated than some consumers expected.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has urged Canadians to buy domestic goods in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's recent tariff threats, suggesting picking "Canadian rye over Kentucky bourbon or forgoing Florida orange juice altogether." Several premiers have made similar pleas.
But those heeding the calls have run into some confusion, because some products are labelled "Made in Canada" while others say "Product of Canada" — or something else entirely. So what does it all mean?
Under the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, a "Product of Canada" label means at least 98 per cent of the total direct costs of producing the item were incurred in Canada. Essentially, it was made in Canada by Canadians, with negligible imported elements.
If a product is 100 per cent Canadian, the label can say exactly that.
"Made in Canada," meanwhile, means it was more than half of the total direct costs — at least 51 per cent but less than 98.
The Competition Bureau encourages qualifying statements for that label, such as "Made in Canada with imported parts," or "Made in Canada with 60 per cent Canadian content and 40 per cent imported content."
For both labels, the product has to have undergone its "last substantial transformation" in Canada — for example, turning dough, sauce and cheese into pizza.
Foreign companies, local factories
"It's not always easy to buy Canadian," Michael Von Massow, a professor of food, agricultural, and resource economics at the University of Guelph, told CBC's The Current.
Even products that meet the threshold for Canadian labelling are often made by international companies that have factories here, he says.
Lay's potato chips, for instance, are ultimately owned by PepsiCo. The bags say "Made in Canada."
They're made "with Canadian labour, with Canadian potatoes," in Cambridge, Ont., Von Massow said.
"So we have to decide individually where the line is and what we're willing to accept."
If a product has Canadian elements but doesn't meet the threshold for "Product of" or "Made in," the Competition Bureau recommends more specific terms, like "Assembled in Canada with foreign parts."
When it comes to groceries, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has a list of other acceptable labels, including:
- "Roasted and blended in Canada" to describe coffee, since the beans are always imported.
- "Packaged in Canada" for, for example, jam made elsewhere but jarred in Canada.
- "Refined in Canada" for cane sugar which, again, must be imported.
- "Distilled in Canada" for bottled water.
If a company slaps a maple leaf or Canadian flag on a product without further explanation, that product will be held to "Made in Canada" standards.
Violating these rules carries serious consequences — under the Competition Act, a corporation can be fined up to $10 million for a first offence and $15 million for any subsequent offence.
Fred Nelson of Vernon, B.C., encountered some of these complications after posting, in light of the threatened tariffs, a list of supposedly Canadian products that was circulating online.
After numerous people pointed out much of the list was inaccurate, he created a Facebook group ("Buy Canadian First") so people could share their own examples of buying Canadian.
By Wednesday afternoon, the group had 5,600 members.
With the tariff threats still mired in uncertainty — Trump granted Canada a 30-day reprieve after a Monday phone call with Trudeau — Nelson says he thinks the movement to buy Canadian is here to stay.
"I think it's going to last. I think people are going to continue to say, 'No, we can do something. We can stand up to you in our own little way,'" he said.
"And one of the best ways we can do it is by purchasing our own products, something with the maple leaf on it, before we purchase anything else from the United States."
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With files from Matt Galloway