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WHMIS 2023
WHMIS 2023: What Changed and What You Need to Comply Today
Canada’s Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) is the national system for classifying hazardous products and communicating those hazards through labels and safety data sheets (SDS) in Canadian workplaces. WHMIS is aligned with the UN’s Globally Harmonized System (GHS), and Canada updated that alignment again in 2023. If you’re still working from WHMIS 2015 guidance, this page covers what’s changed and what’s actually required now.
A Quick Recap: WHMIS 1988 to WHMIS 2015 to WHMIS 2023
The original WHMIS (sometimes called “WHMIS 1988”) predated GHS entirely. In 2015, Canada amended the Hazardous Products Regulations (HPR) to align WHMIS with GHS for the first time, commonly referred to as “WHMIS 2015.” That transition rolled out in phases between 2015 and 2018, covering manufacturers and importers first, then distributors, then employers.
Health Canada has since updated the HPR again. WHMIS 2023 refers to amendments published in the Canada Gazette, Part II on January 4, 2023, which came into force on December 15, 2022, aligning WHMIS with the 7th revised edition of GHS and certain elements of the 8th revised edition.
What WHMIS 2023 Actually Changed
The amendments are narrower than the 2015 overhaul, but they matter for anyone authoring SDSs or labels. Key changes include:
- A new physical hazard class: Chemicals Under Pressure, added to Schedule 2 of the Hazardous Products Act.
- A new aerosol category: Aerosols (renamed from “Flammable Aerosols”) now includes a Category 3 for non-flammable aerosol products.
- New subcategories for Flammable Gases, including folding the former standalone “Pyrophoric Gases” hazard class into a Flammable Gases subcategory.
- Updated SDS content requirements, including revised physical and chemical property information elements (Schedule 1, item 9) and a new option for the Combustible Dust hazard statement (“May form explosible dust-air mixture”).
- Clarified ingredient disclosure rules, requiring all hazardous ingredients present above the relevant cut-off concentration to be disclosed on the SDS, regardless of whether that ingredient contributes to the product’s overall classification.
- Narrower permitted concentration ranges for trade-secret ingredient disclosures, and clarified rules for confidential business information claims and significant new data documentation.
Does This Change the Core WHMIS Framework?
None of this changes the fundamental WHMIS framework: hazardous products still need GHS-format labels (pictogram, signal word, hazard and precautionary statements) and 16-section SDSs. This is a refinement of classification and disclosure detail, not a new system.
Note that WHMIS 2023 aligns with GHS Revision 7 (plus select Revision 8 elements), not GHS Revision 9; Health Canada has not announced a further HPR update to Revision 9 as of mid-2026.
Current Compliance Timeline
The amendments came with a three-year transition period, covering all stakeholders (manufacturers, importers, distributors, and employers together, unlike the phased 2015 rollout). That transition period ended December 14, 2025. All hazardous products in Canada are now required to have classifications, SDSs, and labels that fully comply with the amended HPR.
Coordinated Enforcement with the U.S.
Health Canada has flagged that it wants its enforcement posture to stay coordinated with the United States, where OSHA’s own GHS-alignment update (HazCom 2024) has a longer runway, particularly for mixtures. That U.S. deadline itself moved: on January 15, 2026, OSHA announced a four-month extension, pushing the HazCom 2024 mixture compliance deadline from July 19, 2027 to November 19, 2027. Health Canada’s stated approach tracks that extension:
- Through November 19, 2027: Health Canada will focus on compliance promotion rather than enforcement action for WHMIS 2023 requirements, while retaining the authority to compel compliance at any time if warranted.
- From November 19, 2027 onward: compliance and enforcement will shift to a standard, risk-based approach.
In practice, this means suppliers should already be working to bring classifications, SDSs, and labels into line with the amended HPR now that the formal transition window has closed, even though Health Canada isn’t yet taking a strict enforcement stance while it coordinates with the U.S. timeline.
Who Needs to Comply with WHMIS?
WHMIS 2023 applies to the same groups WHMIS has always covered: any supplier, manufacturer, importer, distributor, or employer that handles hazardous products in a Canadian workplace. If your organization was already subject to WHMIS 2015, the amended requirements apply to you now that the transition period has ended, whether you’re updating classifications, reissuing SDSs, or reprinting labels.
What This Means for Your SDS and Label Authoring Process
If your SDS templates, classification logic, or label generation tools still reflect only the 2015 amendments, they’re missing the Chemicals Under Pressure hazard class, the updated aerosol and flammable gas categories, and the revised ingredient disclosure and concentration-range rules. Quantum’s SDS authoring tools are updated to the amended Hazardous Products Regulations, so classifications, hazard statements, and 16-section SDS output reflect WHMIS 2023 requirements, and stay in step with the parallel U.S. HazCom 2024 update for companies managing both jurisdictions.
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