CGSB Furniture Standards

Micom Laboratories Inc. is accredited by A2LA for all CGSB furniture standards.  Our experts sit on all the CGSB committees addressing office furniture testing.  There are three CGSB furniture standards for office furniture:

• CAN/CGSB 44.232Task Chair for Office Work with Visual Display Terminals
• CAN/CGSB 44.227 Freestanding Office Desk Products and Components
• CAN/CGSB 44.229 Interconnecting Panel Systems and Supported Components

The CGSB furniture standards call up the BIFMA standards for safety and durability testing. In addition to the BIFMA standards, the CGSB standards require conformity to their detailed requirements section which includes surface finish testing as well as additional requirements such as deflection measurement upon doing the BIFMA load tests.

The table below outlines which BIFMA standard each CGSB furniture standard calls up:

If you want to sell your furniture to the Canadian Government and many of the lower government levels, including provincial, municipal, colleges and universities; testing to CGSB standards will be mandatory.

In trying to sell to the Government of Canada, you might find it helpful to review the terms below as Governments tend to have their own “language”:

• AB: Acquisition Branch
• CGSB: Canadian General Standards Board. This group writes technical standards and holds certification programs know as QPL. They are often confused with PWGSC but are two distinct entities reporting to the same Minister. PWGSC “buys”, CGSB “certifies”. PWGSC can but does not have to use the CGSB certification programs even though CGSB holds these programs mainly for PWGSC…
• CPI: Consolidated Procurement Instrument
• E-Purchasing: this is the internet platform PWGSC uses to diffuse the information (model #, product descriptions, prices, etc…) for the products for which they have awarded a SA to qualified suppliers. The different Ministries, Agencies and other Government entities can refer to that platform to purchase products and/or services for which PWGSC has awarded SAs.
• GOFAC: Government Office Furniture Advisory Committee
• GPD: Government Purchase Description. This is the document PWGSC uses to specify what are their requirements for a product group (i.e. office seating, Storage cabinets…) for which they want to establish a SA.
• GSA: Government Supply Administration; the procurement arm of the US Government
• LOI: Letter of Interest
• NGSPS: National Goods and Services Procurement Strategy
• PA: Procurement Authority
• PWGSC: Public Works Canada; the procurement arm of the Government of Canada
• QPL: Qualified Product Listing. This is the certification program by the CGSB for different products
• RFI: Request for Information
• RPB: Real Property Branch
• SA: Supply Agreement
• TA: Technical Authority

For more specific information about the CGSB furniture standards discussed above, please see:

• CAN/CGSB 44.232 Task Chair for Office Work with Visual Display Terminals
• CAN/CGSB 44.227 Freestanding Office Desk Products and Components
• CAN/CGSB 44.229 Interconnecting Panel Systems and Supported Components

For other related information please see BIFMA Testing .