In fiscal year 2024-25, Health Canada maintained its ability to conduct inspections in accordance with the cannabis program's risk-based approach and focused on activities that represented the highest risk to public health and public safety. The program continued to conduct offsite and hybrid inspections, and compliance verifications, while also continuing to conduct onsite planned inspections, including compliance verifications and inspections of registered personal and designated production of cannabis for medical purposes. Health Canada continues to strengthen its oversight to reduce the risk of misuse of the cannabis for medical purposes framework, while maintaining reasonable access to cannabis for medical purposes for the people of Canada.
This summary includes results for cannabis inspections conducted from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025. During this fiscal year, a total of 889 inspections were conducted under the Cannabis Act and its regulations, which included 197 inspections of registered personal and designated production of cannabis for medical purposes. In addition to ongoing compliance verification activities related to promotions prohibitions, 26 inspections targeting promotions activities were conducted at both licenced and non-licenced establishments over this period. Furthermore, between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025, a total of 155 additional activities, such as sampling, seizure and detention, and destruction, were conducted under Cannabis Act and its regulations.
During this fiscal year, Health Canada issued 37 non-compliant inspection reports to licence holders under the Cannabis Act and its regulations. Examples of issues observed included: non-compliances related to good production practices (GPP), unsatisfactory retention of documents and information, and not conducting activities as per their responsibilities.
Measures initiated by Health Canada
Health Canada may take enforcement actions to address non-compliance or to mitigate risks to public health or public safety. These include, but are not limited to, issuance of warning letters, seizure and detention of products, licence suspension or revocation.
As a result of the 889 inspection activities undertaken between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025, Health Canada's Cannabis Inspection Program issued 37 non-compliant inspection reports to licence holders under the Cannabis Act and its regulations, and initiated several escalated compliance actions, including seizure and detention of products, destruction of products, warning letters issued to formally advise licence holders of their non-compliances and to request corrective measures, and stopping sales.
Health Canada continues to strengthen the oversight of persons authorized to produce a limited amount of cannabis for medical purposes. This includes enhancing the verifications of applications where risk factors of public health or public safety are identified. These risks might include situations where a health care practitioner has authorized a high daily amount of dried cannabis, or where applications involve multi-unit alternate production sites, such as those not located at the primary residence of the applicant.
To maintain safety and integrity in this field, Health Canada is also continuing and increasing its collaboration and engagement with key stakeholders, including law enforcement and municipalities. There is an ongoing effort to proactively share information with provincial and territorial health professional licensing authorities. Additionally, Health Canada is applying its powers to refuse or revoke a registration on grounds related to public health and public safety. This approach is complemented by an increased focus on compliance promotion with registrants.
Between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025, a total of 197 inspections were conducted across various locations. Of these, 99 inspections took place in British Columbia, 74 in Ontario, 19 in Quebec, and 5 in Alberta. These efforts underscore the commitment to ensuring that cannabis production for medical purposes adheres to regulatory standards and maintains public health and safety.
Of the 197 inspections completed, 93 inspections received a level 3 rating (most severe), 56 inspections received a level 2 rating, 37 inspections received a level 1 rating, and 11 inspections were not rated. For the definitions of each level, see the Registered personal and designated production of cannabis for medical purposes inspection ratings section.
Health Canada reviews the observations made during these inspections and takes a graduated and proportional enforcement approach to address any risks to public health and safety. Based on the 197 personal and designated production inspections conducted between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025, to date, Health Canada revoked or refused 50 registrations, and additional actions are currently ongoing or under consideration.
As part of the follow-up to these inspections, Health Canada sends compliance letters to educate personal and designated registrants of the requirements of the Cannabis Act and the Cannabis Regulations. These letters provide personal and designated registrants with general information regarding their responsibilities and obligations as a registered person, outline other requirements, and provide general information about the compliance and enforcement tools available at Health Canada.
To address the risk of abuse of the medical access program, Health Canada also refuses or revokes registrations based on actions taken by law enforcement and requests information from health care practitioners to substantiate applications for high daily amounts.
Compliance activities related to promotions prohibitions
In addition to the specific inspection activities noted above, Health Canada regularly verifies compliance with the promotional prohibitions under the Cannabis Act for any person conducting these activities.
Between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025, Health Canada created 436 cases of potential non-compliance related to promotions. This resulted in 130 actions with regulated parties, which may include one or more of the following: warning letters, compliance emails or letters (where action, including following up with Health Canada is required by the recipient), administrative monetary penalties and compliance promotion emails or calls (which provide information to regulated parties to enhance understanding on the Cannabis Act and how to comply). In the order of highest to lowest priority of actions, during the reporting period, Health Canada initiated 68 compliance emails or letters and 62 compliance promotion emails or calls.
Licence holder inspection results
Inspection results can be found in the link here, which provides inspection data for licence holders from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025. Details include licence holder's name and the province or territory where they are located, inspection start date, inspection type, whether sampling was conducted, classification of observations made, inspection compliance rating, and any measures initiated by Health Canada. The cannabis inspection data is also available through the Open Government Portal.
Source: Health Canada
