Whether it’s dealing with a fridge on the fritz or an obsolete oven, cottagers are a resourceful bunch—quick to crack open a toolbox and poke around with a screwdriver. DIY repairs are a core component of cottage culture. But with advancements in software, repairing a broken appliance has become more complicated. Newer appliances can’t always be fixed by the turn of a screw. Smart fridges, laptops, phones, and even cars, now require a diagnostic analysis to pinpoint the problem. Often, it’s easier to throw the product away and buy a new one.
That’s why the Quebec government is stepping in. On October 3, the province passed Bill 29, a piece of legislation that aims to make it easier and more affordable for consumers within Quebec to repair their everyday items. The bill is part of the right-to-repair movement, a growing reaction to manufacturers making their products harder for individuals to fix.
“So many of the products we have now have software built into them,” says Natasha Tusikov, a criminology professor at York University. “Smart vehicles, fridges, video game consoles, or cell phones are pretty much all software. What this means for manufacturers is they have more control over the goods. They decide not only how their coffee maker functions, but they can control the parts that people can use.”
Through the development of software, companies have tightened their grip on consumers. Tusikov points to John Deere tractors as an example. If your tractor breaks down, John Deere has proprietary software that can identify the problem, software that independent repair shops don’t have access to. This requires consumers to use only the manufacturer’s service centres. And in many cases, the parts required to fix the product are difficult to find. Laptops and phones are good examples. Often, it’s less expensive to buy a new phone or laptop than it is to order the required part.
Quebec’s bill bans products intended to have a short life span and requires manufacturers to ensure replacement parts and repair services are available at a reasonable price within the province. Manufacturers would also have to ensure that their products could be repaired using ordinary tools—no proprietary screwdrivers or patented bolts—without causing irreversible damage.
“Environmentally, people really want a solution,” Tusikov says. “But also, a lot of people are facing some pretty tight budgets, and it’s not in their budget to get a whole new appliance. They want to repair the thing they already have.”
With the passage of the new bill, it means those living in Quebec’s cottage country won’t have to drive into a manufacturer’s service centre in the city to have their product repaired. Instead, they can bring it to a local repair shop, saving them time and money, while financially stimulating the local economy.
Bill 29 also introduces a “warranty of good working order”. This warranty applies to all products, requiring manufacturers to shoulder any repair costs within a certain timeframe after purchase. The length of the warranty depends on the product. Click here to read more about what products are included. It’s also important to note that not all elements of the bill take effect immediately. For example, the warranty of good working order will come into force three years after assent, and the warranty of the availability of replacement parts, etc., will take effect two years from now.
Cars also fall under Bill 29. Car manufacturers are required to design their vehicles in a way that any repair shop could fix them, not just the affiliated dealerships. Manufacturers would also be required to provide car owners and long-term lessors—or their mechanics—with the data necessary to diagnose issues.
The bill makes Quebec the first province in Canada with right-to-repair laws. “What we might see—because Quebec is a pretty big province—is if manufacturers have to change their rules and make parts available, this could benefit the rest of Canada,” says Tusikov.
Pending federal legislation
A federal bill to amend the Copyright Act received unanimous support and is currently with the Senate. It’s part of a pledge the federal government made in its 2023 budget to implement right-to-repair laws by 2024. In March, the feds amended Bill C-244, a bill that was intended to allow independent shops to repair manufacturers’ devices without worrying about being sued under software copyright laws. However, the new amendment might complicate future right-to-repair laws. The new amendment exempts any device with embedded sound recordings from the bill. This means phones, laptops, and even washing machines that play a few musical notes at the end of the wash can theoretically only be repaired by the manufacturer.
There’s been little explanation behind the reason for the amendment, but Tusikov says it’s opened a loophole for manufacturers to avoid future right-to-repair laws.
“I don’t think consumers or even policymakers have really grasped how fundamental this change is,” she says. “It’s not something that just copyright lawyers argue about, or academics write papers about. This fundamentally changes what we can do with things, who gets to repair them, and how long these things last.”
The upshot of Bill C-244 Tusikov points out is that the federal law might also cover a gap in the Quebec law: medical devices.
“If someone’s wheelchair breaks, they might have to ship it off for six or eight weeks. For several months they could be without their wheelchair because it has to go back to the original equipment manufacturer instead of, say, your local hospital or your local medical repair shop,” she says. “We’re talking about people’s lives being really curtailed, really affected, because they are tied to having to deal with the original manufacturer.”
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