Canada ends the GST/HST zero-rating of face masks, respirators and face shields from May 2024

What changed in detail

The Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1 (S.C. 2024, c. 17) received Royal Assent on 20 June 2024. Its section 112(1) repeals sections 2 to 5 of Part II.1 of Schedule VI to the Excise Tax Act. Those sections, added by S.C. 2021, c. 23, zero-rated face masks, respirators and face shields, the protective equipment covered by the COVID-19 relief.

Section 112(2) says the repeal applies to supplies made after April 2024, so from 1 May 2024. That date is about seven weeks before Royal Assent.

From that date these items are no longer zero-rated under Part II.1. GST or HST applies to them at the ordinary rate unless another relief in the Act covers the particular supply.

The current consolidated Excise Tax Act shows sections 2 to 5 of Part II.1 as “[Repealed, 2024, c. 17, s. 112]”.

What it means

This change is spent. The repeal is permanent, and no later law has restored the relief.

The retroactive start is the part to watch. The repeal reaches back to supplies made from 1 May 2024, although the Act received Royal Assent only on 20 June 2024. A supplier that zero-rated masks or face shields in that window was, as the law now reads, under-collecting. That matters in any review of 2024 returns.

For supplies made since then, the question is no longer whether this zero-rating applies. It is whether the product qualifies under some other heading, such as a medical device listed elsewhere in Schedule VI.