Notice of intent to sell e-substances and reporting requirements
The new E-Substances Regulation introduced requirements for all businesses who currently sell E-substances or intend to sell E-substances in British Columbia. Business owners must notify the Ministry of Health of their intent to sell restricted E-substances. There are also new requirements to provide individual product reports (and manufacturing reports as applicable) at least 6 weeks before the product is first sold from the sales premises. The Notice of Intent, product reports, manufacturing reports and sales reports are required for each location of your business and only for non-therapeutic nicotine E-substances.
BC E-Substances Reporting application
The BC E-Substances Reporting (BCER) application is a new web-based portal supporting the E-Substances Regulation requirements. The BCER is a new web-based application for all businesses which intend to sell vapour products in BC. It will allow businesses to submit their Notice of Intent to sell E-substances, product reports, manufacturing reports and sales reports on-line using a single system. This new site requires businesses to create their own account using a basic BCeID. Once a business has entered all new data, the new BCER will enable businesses to update business information and upload reports as necessary throughout the year. To ensure consistency in reporting requirements, templates have been created for uploading multiple locations and product reports. Details and templates can be found below.
Note: the BCER is not compatible with Internet Explorer. Please use the most recent versions of Chrome, Firefox or Safari.
If you completed your Notice of Intent and submitted your product and manufacturing reports using the process before December 9, 2020, you are not required to update your reports at this time.
However, you will be required to renew your Notice of Intent and product/manufacturing reports using the new BC E-Substances Reporting application when you renew your Notice of Intent before January 15, 2021 (as per the E-Substances Regulation). With this new reporting system's introduction, you will be required to resubmit your product reports using this new site before January 15, 2021.
You will no longer be required to email your product or manufacturing reports to the Ministry as they will be submitted through the new BCER.
Video Walkthrough of the BCER application
Notice of intent to sell E-Substances
Business owners must notify the Ministry of Health of their intent to sell restricted E-substances by submitting a Notice of Intent to sell E-Substances to the Ministry of Health. The Notice of Intent to sell E-Substances is required for each separate sales premises for your business and the sale of non-therapeutic nicotine E-substances. Business owners will be required to submit the following information through the BC E-Substances Reporting Application:
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The legal name of the business
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The name under which business conducted
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Address of sales premises from which restricted E-substances are sold
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Phone Number for sales premises
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Email address for sales premises
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Webpage for sales premises (if applicable)
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If persons under 19 years of age are permitted on the sales premises
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Health authority in which the retail location is located
The Notice of Intent must be submitted before January 15 of each year that a retailer intends to continue selling restricted e-substances.
Businesses with multiple sales premises will have the option to enter each of their locations manually or upload a prefilled Comma Separated Values (CSV) template to the application. The following business location template may be used and must be saved as a CSV file. Once uploaded, businesses will map the headers from their document to the headers in the online application. Businesses must map each of the headers outlined in the application (see below). You may use an existing template that you have for your business if it includes the headings outlined in the template. It must also be uploaded as a CSV.
Business Location Template (CSV, 1KB)
What is a CSV?
A Comma Separated Values (CSV) file is a plain text file that contains a list of data. Microsoft Excel files can be saved as CSV files. Using a CSV file allows retailers to upload a list of data (products, locations, etc.) to the application.
Please note that if a business location is also a retail location, business owners will have to add it as a retail location in the application.
NOTE: Business owners who fail to submit their Notice of Intent and fail to comply with the new reporting requirements may be subject to offences under the Public Health Act.
Product reporting
As a business owner who sells or intends to sell E-substances in British Columbia, you are required to provide product information reports for each restricted E-substance you intend to sell. Product reports must be submitted at least 6 weeks prior to selling a restricted E-substance at retail.
A Product Report must include the following information for each restricted E-substance that will be sold from the sales premises.
- The name and contact information of the manufacturer
- The brand name and product name
- The type of product
- The concentration of nicotine (in mg/mL)
- The capacity (in mLs) of either the refillable container or the tank/cartridge to hold the E-substance
- A list of all the ingredients in an E-substance (both the common and scientific names unless one of these names is not available from the manufacturer)
Product information must be submitted using the BCER application. Only one product report may be submitted for each sales premise. If you receive products from multiple manufacturers, you must combine all product reports into one CSV template for uploading.
The following Product Report CSV template may be used and must be saved as a CSV file. Once uploaded, products will map the headers from their document to the headers in the online application. Businesses must map each of the headers outlined in the application (see below). You may use an existing template that you have for your business if it includes the headings outlined in the template. It must also be uploaded as a CSV.
Product Report CSV Template (CSV, 1KB)
If any of the above information changes for a restricted E-substance product, the business owner must report this change to the Ministry within 7 days of selling the changed product.
Manufacturing reporting
As a business owner, if a retailer formulates, packages, re-packages or prepares restricted E-substances for sale at your sales premises, you are required to provide information about those E-substances. Manufacturing reports must be submitted at least 6 weeks prior to selling the restricted E-substance at the retail location.
A Manufacturing Report must include the following information for each restricted E-substance that will be sold from the sales premises.
- Name and contact information of the manufacturer of each ingredient.
- Both the common and scientific names of each ingredient, unless one of these names is not available from the manufacturer
Manufacturing reports must be entered manually into the database for each product that a business manufacture. The BCER application will allow you to choose an option to apply the manufacturing report to multiple locations, if applicable. The following template may be used to assist with data entry.
Manufacturing Report Template for retailers (XLSX, 19KB)
Sales reporting
Prior to January 15 of each year, business owners must report the vapour product sales that have occurred during a specified reporting period. For each type of vapour product sold, a business owner must report on:
- The number of containers and cartridges sold, grouped by brand name and product name
- The volume (in mLs) of restricted E-substance in the product
- The flavour, if the E-substance in the product is flavoured.
The sales information must be collected during the reporting period of October 1 in one year to September 30 of the following year. The business owner must report the sales volume data collected during this reporting period before January 15 of every year (i.e. all business owners must report the previous year’s sales figures by this date). For example, business owners must submit their first sales report by January 15, 2022, for the sales period of October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021.
For business-related questions, including questions about the reporting requirements, please email vaping.info@gov.bc.ca.
For technical support in using the application, please email hlth.helpdesk@gov.bc.ca.
Further information on the E-Substances Regulation and information for retailers is available on Requirements under the Public Health Act and E-Substances Regulation.