Canadian Clothing Labels: Bilingual Fibre Content and a Dealer Identity
By The Velocity Wear Team
Canadian textile labelling is administered by the Competition Bureau under the Textile Labelling Act and the Textile Labelling and Advertising Regulations, and it has two features that catch out brands who learned the rules elsewhere: fibre content has to appear in both official languages, and the label has to identify who is responsible for the garment.
Neither is difficult. Both have to be decided before production, because labels are made with the garments rather than added to them.
Fibre content, in English and French
The generic fibre names and their percentages by weight, in descending order, expressed in both official languages. The regulations set out the acceptable fibre names, and a mill's marketing name for a blend is not one of them.
In practice this is why so many garments sold in Canada carry a label reading something like "100% COTTON / 100% COTON". Some fibre names are identical in both languages and only need to appear once; others differ and need both forms. Get the exact bilingual wording confirmed rather than translating it yourself, because the permitted terms are prescribed rather than descriptive.
Identifying the dealer
The label also has to identify the dealer — broadly, the person or business responsible for the article in Canada. There are two ways to do it: the full name and postal address of the dealer, or a CA identification number issued by the Competition Bureau.
For a small brand, the CA number is usually the better option. Printing a full legal entity name and a home address into the neck of every garment is neither elegant nor something most founders want, and a CA number is a short code that satisfies the requirement without either. There is more on obtaining one in the CA number guide.
What is not required
- Care instructions. Canada has a national standard for care symbols but applying it is voluntary, unlike the United States where care labelling is mandatory. Include it anyway — it is the cheapest returns reduction available.
- A brand name. Legally, the fibre content and dealer identity are the requirements. Commercially, obviously, put your name on it.
- Country of origin as a general textile labelling requirement, though customs and origin rules apply separately, and any origin claim you do make has to be accurate.
- Size. There is no legally mandated Canadian sizing standard, which is exactly why publishing measurements is worth doing.
Where it has to appear
The disclosure has to be on a label applied to the article, legible and readily visible to a prospective purchaser under normal shopping conditions. A swing ticket removed at the till does not carry it; a neck label or a side seam label does.
Practically, most brands put fibre content and dealer identity on a side seam label and keep the neck label for branding, which is tidier than trying to fit everything into one mark at the collar.
Quebec adds a layer
The bilingual fibre content requirement is federal and applies across Canada. Quebec has separate French-language requirements affecting commercial documents, packaging and inscriptions on products, under the Charter of the French Language.
A brand selling nationally usually satisfies both by treating French as a first-class language throughout — labels, hang tags, packaging and product pages — rather than as a translation bolted on for one province.
One label for several markets
If you also sell into the US and UK, the requirements differ but they do not conflict. The union is a label carrying fibre content in English and French, a dealer identity or CA number, country of origin, and care instructions. That satisfies Canada, the United States and Great Britain at once, and it costs essentially nothing more to produce than a minimal one.
Send the wording with your artwork and it is made as part of the run. Woven, printed or heat transfer, to your design — but the content has to be final at approval, because there is no adding it afterwards without a needle and a very long evening.
