Canadian laws about RFing

Taxandria

New member
Hi all,

We recently moved from the US to Quebec, Canada and our 2 and a half year old is still RFing (Britax Boulevard CS). She's within the limits for the seats she's using, but my brother in law mentioned to my husband something about Canadian law saying you have to FF from 1 year and on. That didn't make any sense to me, so I went looking on any official Quebec/Canada websites. I didn't find anything that said you couldn't RF after 1 year, and my hubby mentioned the issue again to my BIL who then started talking about something to do with the standards in Canadian car seats being set to accommodate overweight kids.:confused:

Hubby and I had a huge argument over this today because I could not figure out what BIL's point was, and hubby was trying to explain and I just was NOT "getting it."

It makes no sense to me to have to FF any child arbitrarily at one year old. I'm guessing either BIL has his information wrong or hubby interpreted it wonky.

We also just bought a Graco MyRide 65 (Canadian) and I have to get another carseat anyway considering I've just learned that we aren't supposed to use one we bought in the USA (which is a shame because our Britax is pretty new).

So what say you, Canada? Are there actually any laws restricting anyone from having their child rear face past one year?

Thanks!
 
ADS

amyd

New member
No, there are no laws saying that a child must be FFing at one year. Most (all?) Canadian provinces have what are known as "proper use laws". This means that you must use your child restraint properly as directed by the manufacturer or you are in violation of the law. All child restraints in Canada say that the child must be at least 1 year old to FF (and other restrictions such as weight and sometimes height), so turning FFing before 1 year is against the law. In stating this, sometimes agencies who disseminate car seat safety info or even ill-written stickers and manuals have been misinterpreted to mean that a child must be turned FFing at the minimums. Your BIL is not the first to believe this. There are no age restrictions on extended RFing; only the weight and height restrictions of the specific restraints.
 

canadiangie

New member
Welcome to car-seat.org, and to Canada. :)

I just want to say that Amy's post is right on. Please continue to rear face your toddler until she outgrows the rear facing weight limit (40lbs) for your myride65 or by height, which is her head 1" from the top of the seat; whichever comes first.

Hope that helps, and please feel free to send your BIL here. ;)
 

ninejr

New member
Like others have said there is no law saying you must turn them at 1 year. The comment about them being made to accommodate larger kids came about with some new laws that came into effect this year and that was the language that was used when they talked about it on the news, but honestly it seems that the news was a little confused and emphasizing all the wrong things.
Anyway, I feel your pain on having to buy a new seat after moving. We moved to Canada from the States when A was 10 months old and it was very painful to have to buy new seats (and the Canadian ones are so much more expensive!). Do you have anyone in the States that can use your seat? We gave our US seat to my parents (who are in the States) and we use it when we are visiting them instead of having to always bring ours, and my mom can use it when she is baby sitting other kids.
 

tam_shops

New member
BIL probably read the rule that you are not aloud to FF before 1YO. The limits of your seats are in the instructions, have your DH read that, should settle the argument. The Canadian seats are not aloud to have weights/heights on them that are against our laws. So, even something like the Frontier 85 only has harness here to 65#.

Someone recently posted a link to the Canadian site w/ each Province's regulations, that might help your case, maybe do a post asking about that, someone here will know where it is...

Finally, not sure why it was but, a lot of our seats used to (as of summer 2010, I know several still did) say something like RF height max was 32", that would be a short 1 1/2YO, so still not 1YO, and even that, depending on how you read it &/or the seat, some people thought it was more of a guideline...Further, if you phoned BCAA (hotline w/ techs here), you were told ignore it if you wanted, use the 1" from the top of the seat rule...

tam
 

snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor

mam521

New member
You'll want to confirm anything off that chart with provincial data. It hasn't been updated since May 2008. I don't know off the top of my head if Quebec law has changed or not in the last few years.

I'm surprised to be honest that the source hasn't updated that info. I have noticed its outdated, but at least its a starting place, right? I wish the laws were better enforced in some provinces (hmmm, AB?!) and I hope/wish some of the "slacker" provinces have adopted less "slack" laws (QC, SK, AB to name a few).
 

tam_shops

New member
Thanks Melissa, guess w/ the current Quebec rules it doesn't really help...

Shame they have not updated it...Didn't realize that BC was progressive w/ it's seat laws!

Was the new 22# rule for BC or Canada?

tam
 

Taxandria

New member
Thanks for all of the detailed information and the link!

Amy, I think maybe BIL did misinterpret something along the way or maybe hubby did and I didn't get the proper "translation."

Angie, we do intend to RF until our daughter outgrows the seat requirements for FF. I was so happy to get the new Graco because I can RF her longer in it. She's only 30 lbs now and I'm going to check her height today.

ninejr, that's a good idea. My niece has a 16 month old and she can probably use the Britax seat for him. I wonder how much it would cost to ship back....

Tam, interesting about the height guideline. I did try to assure hubby that BIl need not worry about our whole RFing (BIL has a son who is about 2 mos older than our daughter and they started FFing him way back before May of 2010 -- I noticed he was FFing when they came to visit us in the states. I think he was recently turned 2 at the time. I didn't say anything as I feel weird lecturing anyone on it so I was surprised when BIL expressed some concern that we were RFing.)

mam521, thanks for the link! I printed it out just in case and showed it to my hubby (triumphantly, lol). I am originally from NY but have lived in TX for 11 years so coming back to the snow and cold etc. wasn't too fun. The biggest difference is of course the French language. I'm used to everything being English/Spanish. Good thing I picked up Rosetta Stone to help me improve my high school French:)

My mother in law really got her knickers in a twist about our RFing. She commented many times about how we should "turn her around." We did the drive from TX to Quebec with her RFing and MIL was bemoaning how she must have been uncomfortable etc. She even used the classic line about how our daughter needs to see out the window! Miffled and offended I was but I kept my mouth shut. I did want to blow my stack when MIL was sitting in the backseat with our daughter on an errand and when we got out she was REALLY agitated about the RFing. I forget exactly the words she used but it was something akin to, "you should turn the blasted seat around!"

It was almost becoming a drinking game with how much she kept bringing it up. :p


EDIT: Ooh I just caught up on the newest posts -- I'll look and see if I can find anything about the laws for Quebec. Did anything change significantly in the past 2.5 or so years? I don't know anything about AB etc. but I did live in Vancouver for almost 6 months (got married there) and I hate to say it but BC suited me soo much better than Quebec so far. It's gorgeous, the people seem friendlier, and the weather wasn't as harsh. Which provinces are the most progressive, anyway? Like would you say Vancouver is more like say NY in attitudes and AB for example might be more like um, say Arkansas? I have no frame of reference yet.

Is the new 22 lb. rule the one where it used to be 19 lbs but it increased? I was reading a bit about that but the article was mainly a news story about people not being able to find the new seats.
 
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mam521

New member
Canadian regulation on car seats in general has been under scrutiny with many changes. Here's a great thread which explains them:

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=148595

As for provincial laws, I'm not sure where you'd check in QC. It would appear the Maritime provinces have some pretty strict rules as does BC and the Prairies are a bit slow to get on the boat. Its a shame, really. Its nice to see more parents spending the time to educate themselves though :thumbsup:

I spent 14 weeks in OK and 8 in TX. Winter in OK was a definite cry from the one we're having in AB this year! I think I'd opt for Vancouver at this point too!! Ah well, I can definitely appreciate how it would be a change being in QC, especially the language for sure. ;) At least there are similarities between French and Spanish...
 

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