Also called Weights and Measures Act, trade measurement, legal metrology
What is Measurement Canada?
The federal agency that regulates any measuring device used to decide how much a customer pays.
What else it is called
- Other names
- Weights and Measures Act, trade measurement, legal metrology
- In French
- Mesures Canada
Related entries
Understanding measurement Canada
A federal agency whose remit is trade measurement: any device whose reading determines what a buyer pays. A truck scale weighing outbound product, a flow meter billing by volume, a scale pricing product by mass are all in scope, and they must be of an approved type, inspected at set intervals and marked accordingly.
The distinction worth holding is between this and your quality calibration. Calibrating a micrometre to NRC-traceable standards is about whether your parts meet the drawing. Measurement Canada is about whether your customer is being charged correctly, it is law rather than a management system requirement, and the inspection intervals are set by regulation rather than by you.
For most manufacturers the exposure is narrow but real: the weighbridge, and any product sold by weight or volume rather than by piece.
In practice
If you ship by the tonne and invoice from your own scale, that scale is regulated. Many plants treat it as ordinary equipment until an inspection says otherwise.
Frequently asked
Does this apply to our quality gauges?
No, unless a gauge determines what a customer is charged. Internal inspection equipment is governed by your quality system and your customers’ requirements, not by the Weights and Measures Act.