The Minister of Transport recently announced amendments to Canada’s Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations (TDGR) and is published in the Canada Gazette Vol.148 SOR/2014-306. The amendment includes a ban on transporting lithium metal batteries as cargo on passenger flights in Canada, as well as new labelling and Emergency Response Assistance Plan (ERAP) requirements for certain dangerous goods.
To comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) ban, the lithium metal batteries are prohibited on passenger planes within Canada effective January 1, 2015.
It does not apply to batteries already contained in or packed with equipment, but only to those packaged and shipped separately. The ban will not affect travellers’ personal devices such as laptops and smartphones, which use lithium ion batteries.
More details on lithium batteries can be found on Transport Canada’s website.