Canada Organic Regime operating manual
Appendix D - CB management of nonconformities and enforcement actions under the Canada Organic Regime
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Description for flow chart showing the CBs regulatory authorities for enforcement actions under Part 13 of the SFCR.
- The CB issues a notification of nonconformity (NC) to an operator/applicant and requests that the operator responds to the notification within 30 working days of its receipt, as per paragraph 349(2)(a) of the SFCR and section C.2.3.1 of the COR operating manual. The response shall either provide evidence of the completion of corrective action(s) taken to address the nonconformity or, a plan with milestones as to how the nonconformity will be addressed.
- After the response is provided, the CB assesses the information and verifies that the operator has addressed all the nonconformities before determining whether to close the NC. If the NC is closed, the CB makes a certification decision. Depending on the circumstance, the certification decision could be either to lift a suspension of an existing organic operator or to issue organic certification to an applicant/operator.
- If the CB determines that the NC is not closed, the operator may request for a 1 time extension from their CB in order to submit their corrective action plan to address the nonconformity. The CB then reassesses the information provided and determines whether to close the NC. If the NC is closed a certification decision will be made. If the NC is not closed, the CB issues a notification of suspension to the operator as per subsections 349(1) and 349(4) of the SFCR.
- The CB issues a notification of nonconformity (NC) to an operator and requests that the operator responds to the notification within 30 working days of its receipt, but the operator does not provide a response. In this case, the CB must issue a notice of suspension to the operator in accordance with subsections 349(1) and 349(4) of the SFCR.
- After the CB issues a notification of suspension to an operator, the operator has 30 days to take corrective action or submit a corrective action plan to their CB as per paragraph 350(1)(a) of the SFCR. The CB assesses the information provided and determines whether or not the information is adequate.
- If the information is adequate, the CB determines whether or not to close the NC and a certification decision is made accordingly.
- If the information is inadequate, the CB notifies the operator of the grounds for cancellation and provides the operator an opportunity to be heard.
- The CB issues the operator a notification of cancellation as per section 350 of the SFCR.
- After the CB issues a notification of suspension to an operator, if the operator did not provide a response or provided the CB with an inadequate response, the CB must notify the operator of the grounds for cancellation and provide the operator an opportunity to be heard.
- The CB issues the operator a notification of cancellation as per section 350 of the SFCR.
Additional information
- The Notification of Suspension has to be issued separately from the Notification of Proposed Cancellation (that is, grounds for cancellation).
- Suspension and cancellation are 2 separate processes. Only in the case of paragraph 350(1)(b) of the SFCR that the CB can proceed directly with a Notification of Proposed Cancellation without suspending the operator. The CB has to give the operator the "opportunity to be heard".
- Under the SFCR the CBs are required to have an appeal process in line with ISO/IEC17065 and the operator has to be informed about this process when notified about cancellation. This process is considered compliant with the SFCR requirement for "opportunity to be heard".
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