These Canadians want the ‘right to repair’ their stuff: ‘We can’t continue on the same way of consuming’

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Nearly every month at community centres around Metro Vancouver, a group of handy local volunteers – retired tradespeople, passionate amateur tinkerers and students from UBC’s faculty of electrical engineering – spend a few hours helping Vancouverites fix their broken stuff.

The repair cafés, held by the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation and the City of Vancouver, accept computers, clothing and textiles, bicycles, and small appliances and electronics such as sound systems and CD players.

Brian Wong, SPEC’s repair café co-ordinator, said the cafés, which have a 70-per-cent repair success rate, are meant to reduce waste and push back against planned obsolescence – the practice of designing products to quickly fail or become out of date.

“We need to utilize what we have and extend the life of it,” he said. “We can’t continue on the same way of consuming.”

Repair cafés are part of a broader consumer-advocacy movement – made up of a coalition of academics, environmental organizations, farmers and do-it-yourself enthusiasts – calling for product manufacturers to be legally required to provide the tools, parts, repair manuals and other information necessary for repair. Making repair more accessible, they say, would not only divert mountains of waste and slow a cycle of hyperconsumption, but also save Canadians money in the long run.

“If we can’t repair, if we can’t maintain, we’re forced to replace,” said Colin Deacon, an independent senator for Nova Scotia and a supporter of what has become known as the right to repair. “It’s an environmental and economic burden on society.”

Most Canadians want a right to repair: A February, 2022, survey by a federal climate-action research program found 90 per cent of respondents want to see legislation. But very few are fixing their own stuff, largely because of challenges with product design and the cost of repair, according to a different 2022 study by environmental group Équiterre. The study found 91 per cent of Canadians had bought at least one new appliance or electronic device in the preceding two years, but less than one-fifth have their appliances and electronics repaired when they break down.

Individuals and independent repair businesses alike are stymied by a host of roadblocks – including limited access to the means of repair, complicated product design, digital locks and restrictive warranties – that make repairing their items either impossible or more expensive than buying new, experts say.

“[Manufacturers] have created really sophisticated tactics to make repair costly, inconvenient, inaccessible and at the same time they’re offering, let’s say, a replacement program that has a price that’s really reduced,” said Alissa Centivany, an assistant professor at Western University who specializes in intellectual-property and technology law and studies right to repair. “For most people that’s going to incentivize them to replace rather than repair.”

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The cause is gaining steam with governments. Twenty-five U.S. states have passed or are advancing right-to-repair legislation. In 2021, France implemented a repairability index, which rates electronic devices at the point of sale on a scale of one to five for how repairable they are. Quebec became the first province to enact right-to-repair legislation late last year.

The federal government promised in the 2023 budget to introduce legislation, but has yet to do so. It pledged in the 2024 budget to begin consultations, and included in the budget implementation bill an amendment to the Competition Act that makes refusing to provide the “means of diagnosis and repair” an anti-competitive act.

Right now, manufacturers can both refuse to sell replacement parts and specialized tools, and refuse to allow others to make them. They can restrict the information necessary for repair to their own employees or sign agreements with select repair businesses. They can also include restrictive terms in warranties that void the agreement if the customer repairs their own device or has it repaired by an unaffiliated business.

“Smart” devices with embedded software are often equipped with digital locks that authenticate parts as original or manufacturer-approved, such as printers that don’t take third-party ink cartridges, or Apple Inc.’s practice of blocking refurbished parts from working in its new cellphones. (The tech giant said in April it would allow “used genuine Apple parts” to be installed in its devices as of the fall.)

A private member’s bill to amend the Copyright Act to allow the circumvention of digital locks on embedded software in appliances, electronics, vehicles and other items, for the purpose of diagnosis and repair, is making its way through the Senate.

David Bishop, a Barons, Alta., grain farmer, said digital locks have turned what should be routine maintenance into an expensive endeavour. When he replaces the pollution control filter on his tractor with a new one from the manufacturer, Mr. Bishop has to call the Lethbridge equipment dealership to send someone out to authenticate the new part before the tractor can run. That means a 45-minute drive each way, for a five-minute job, which costs Mr. Bishop a minimum of $180 for the callout and $1.50 per kilometre the mechanic travelled. He said that’s the best-case scenario; if the dealership is busy, he loses hours or even days of work.

Manufacturers have long opposed right-to-repair legislation on the grounds of consumer safety and protecting their own intellectual property. Associations representing home-appliance manufacturers and electronics manufacturers submitted briefings opposing the private member’s bill on digital locks, arguing repairs by unaffiliated businesses or untrained customers can be dangerous.

But limiting who’s able to repair drives up the cost for consumers, said Anthony Rosborough, assistant professor of law and computer science at Dalhousie University and the co-founder of the Canadian Repair Coalition. He said the change to the Competition Act was promising, and could give independent repair businesses the right to insist manufacturers provide tools, parts or information.

“The more people who can do this, the more competition there is, and costs come down. These details really matter to give people choice,” he said.

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Mr. Deacon saw that firsthand when he tried to have a two-year-old dishwasher repaired after its pump broke. A local repairman told him that, with the cost of accessing specialty tools from the manufacturer and replacing the component, the job would cost $600. A new dishwasher, with a five-year warranty, would cost just $500. “A pump break is hugely problematic in terms of quality. But I should’ve been able to repair at less than the cost of replacing,” he said.

More change is needed at the provincial level, Mr. Rosborough said. Provinces are largely responsible for consumer-protection legislation and can set rules around warranty wording.

Quebec’s new legislation introduces new warranty duration requirements for certain goods and the right for consumers to have those goods repaired by either the merchant, manufacturer or a third party at the merchant or manufacturer’s expense. It also obligates manufacturers to make replacement parts and repair services available for a reasonable price and for a reasonable amount of time after the purchase.

Western University’s Ms. Centivany said that even consumers who love getting the newest phone would benefit from a right to repair. More options for repair would translate to a flourishing “secondary market” for budget-minded people looking for quality used goods.

“When you have healthy secondary markets, that applies downward pressure on the primary market,” she said. “It saves everybody money, whether or not an individual chooses to buy used.”