How to Start Ordering Items Through Canadian Heritage Online in Canada

Canadian Heritage gives away a small set of physical items — flag posters, hand flags, tattoos, and printed copies of the Charter and the Bill of Rights — and the way to get them is through its online system, the Canadian Heritage Online System. This guide covers ordering those items only. The same system also handles funding applications, and the two uses are easy to confuse, so the funding side is kept out of the steps below except where the account setup overlaps.

One warning up front, stated plainly because it changes the route: the PROMO application — the online form for ordering printed Charter and Bill of Rights copies — is temporarily unavailable due to a technical issue, according to the Download or order the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights page. Printed Charter orders currently go by email instead. The Flag Day ordering route through the Canadian Heritage Online System carries no such notice on the pages linked in this guide.

1. What you can order, and what you cannot

Start from the item, because the ordering route depends on which family it belongs to. There are two verified families.

National Flag of Canada material. Through the Canadian Heritage Online System, you can request to receive educational items related to the National Flag of Canada by mail, and promotional items are also available for special occasions. For National Flag of Canada Day specifically, the National Flag of Canada Day toolkit names the items: Canadian flag posters and stickers, small hand-held Canadian flags (paper), and temporary maple leaf tattoos. The toolkit page describes this material as free, and says it can be ordered for Flag Day activities. The same toolkit also offers free digital material that needs no order at all: a Flag Day poster to download and print, printable colour-your-own flags in small and large versions, a virtual background for video conferencing, and social media cover images and visuals — download those directly from the toolkit page instead of ordering them.

Charter and Bill of Rights print copies. The Download or order the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights page offers printed copies in two sizes: certificate size (28 cm x 34 cm), to be handed out in the classroom, at a conference, workshop or public activity, and poster size (46 cm x 60 cm), to be displayed in the classroom or a public space. The same page offers the Charter and the Bill of Rights as downloadable PDFs, the Charter in American Sign Language, and the Charter in Indigenous languages (Inuktitut, Michif Cree, Mi'kmaq, Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, Swampy Cree, Algonquin, Dëne sułine', Innu-aimun, Inuktitut (North Baffin), and Plains Cree) and in various other languages as accessible PDFs from the Open Government portal. Download those if you need a copy now; order print copies only if you need the physical format.

What is not verified: no official page lists a wider catalogue of orderable items, a gift shop, paid merchandise, or an orderable item list beyond the two families above, and no page states quantity limits, delivery times, or shipping costs. Anything beyond the two families is outside this guide — do not assume other Canadian Heritage publications can be ordered the same way.

2. Register for the Canadian Heritage Online System

You need an account before you can submit an order form. The National Flag of Canada Day toolkit states the sequence: if you are a new user, you will first need to register, then submit an online order form to receive your items.

Registration follows the account flow described in the Video — Create an account in the system transcript:

1. Reach the Canadian Heritage Online System and choose how to sign in. There are two options: use a sign-in partner, logging in with a username and password you already created for other online services, such as online banking; or use a GCKey, a Government of Canada username and password. A GCKey lets you securely use a variety of online government programs and services, and Public Services and Procurement Canada manages the service.
2. If you do not have a GCKey, sign up for one: read the Terms and Conditions of Use and click "I accept," create a username following the on-screen checklist, create a password (entered twice, following the checklist), then choose recovery questions and answer them. Write down your login information.
3. The first time you reach the Canadian Heritage Online System, you are redirected to its terms of use; read them and click "I agree." This happens only the first time.
4. On the system access page, if you already have an account, click "Access an Existing Account." If you are a new user, click "Register," then enter your first name, last name and a valid email address, confirm the email address, and click "Register." This email address is the one the Department uses to communicate with you about your online application or order.
5. A PIN is emailed to you. Enter it on the final page and click "Link Account." You are now connected to the Online System.

Keep the GCKey or sign-in partner credentials and the registered email address together: the Video — Overview of the Canadian Heritage Online System (CHOS) transcript notes that the "My Profile" page holds the user information provided when the account was created, and the system's FAQ page and Help tab carry the user guide and the CHOS support team's contact information if registration fails. No password-reset or account-recovery steps for the Canadian Heritage Online System itself were verified on a page, and none are described here — if you are locked out, use the support contact on the system's Help tab.

3. Order Flag Day promotional material (December to January)

Once registered, submit the online order form through the Canadian Heritage Online System for the items you want. The National Flag of Canada Day toolkit states the window: Canadian flag posters and stickers, small hand-held Canadian flags (paper), and temporary maple leaf tattoos are available to order from December to January. National Flag of Canada Day is February 15, so order inside that December-to-January window — the page gives no ordering route for February itself.

Plan around the window, not around a delivery promise: no page states how long delivery takes after the order form is submitted, how items are shipped, or whether there is a per-order quantity limit. If the material is for a specific February 15 event, submit the order form early in the window and keep the downloadable toolkit material (poster, printable flags, virtual background) as the fallback if the mailed items do not arrive in time.

The Description of the National Flag of Canada page separately says promotional items are available for special occasions, but gives no dates, item list, or ordering window for occasions other than Flag Day. If you need promotional material for another occasion, treat it as a request to confirm with the Department — the Flag Day route and window are the only ones verified here.

4. Order printed Charter and Bill of Rights copies (email route while PROMO is down)

Printed Charter and Bill of Rights copies normally go through the PROMO application. That application is currently unavailable. The Download or order the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights page states the position in full: "The PROMO application is temporarily unavailable due to a technical issue. To order the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, please contact: droitsic-cirights@pch.gc.ca."

While the application is down, email that address to order. State which document you want (the Charter, the Bill of Rights, or both) and which size (certificate size, 28 cm x 34 cm, or poster size, 46 cm x 60 cm), and include a mailing address — the page does not publish an order form or a list of required fields for the email route, so include the details the Department would need to fulfil a mailed order and ask for confirmation. No delivery time, quantity limit, or cost is stated on the page, and none is stated here.

If you need the Charter immediately, do not wait for the PROMO application to return: download and print the PDF versions from the same page, or use the Braille Ready Format version from Justice Canada, the American Sign Language version, or the Indigenous-language and other-language PDFs from the Open Government portal. The legal text of the Charter is published online as the Constitution Act, 1982, and the legal text of the Bill of Rights as the Canadian Bill of Rights, S.C. 1960, c. 44, according to the same page — the downloadable copies are the content, the print copies are the format.

Note the copyright limit on the same page: the images of the Charter and Bill of Rights are copyright protected, and commercial use is typically not permitted, with the exception of educational or informative purposes. Contact the Department of Canadian Heritage if you wish to obtain permission to publish them for educational or informative purposes or have questions about commercial use.

5. Do not confuse ordering items with applying for funding

The Canadian Heritage Online System is one account system with two different jobs, and the pages linked in this guide describe both. The Video — Overview of the Canadian Heritage Online System (CHOS) transcript walks through the funding side: the welcome page shows the steps for a funding application (register your organization, select a funding program, complete and submit your application), the "My Organizations" tab is where you register the organization you represent, and the "Apply" menu lists the online programs alphabetically with each program's intake status. The "Cultural Tax Credit Certification" tab covers other services provided by Canadian Heritage.

None of that is the ordering route. An item order is the online order form (Flag Day material) or the PROMO application / email route (Charter print copies). A funding application is a separate submission with eligibility rules, deadlines, and program guidelines of its own. If you arrived at the system to apply for funding, stop and use the funding guide linked below instead — submitting an item request where a funding application belongs, or the reverse, wastes the submission.

6. If something goes wrong

Three failure modes are worth naming, because each has a different fix. If you cannot sign in, the problem is usually the GCKey or sign-in partner credential, not the Canadian Heritage account: the Video — Create an account in the system transcript notes that a GCKey is managed by Public Services and Procurement Canada, and that the sign-in partner route uses credentials from another online service. If registration stalls at the PIN step, check the email account you registered with — the PIN is emailed to that address, and the Department uses that address for all communication about your order or application. If the order form itself is unavailable, check which item family you are ordering: the Flag Day order form runs through the Canadian Heritage Online System, while the Charter print-copy route runs through the PROMO application, which is currently down — a PROMO outage does not mean the Flag Day form is down, and a working Flag Day form does not mean PROMO is back. For anything else, the system's Help tab carries the user guide and the CHOS support team's contact information, according to the Video — Overview of the Canadian Heritage Online System (CHOS) transcript.

Recheck before ordering: the Flag Day ordering window (December to January) and the PROMO application's availability are both time-sensitive statements from the toolkit and Charter pages. Confirm the window is open and the PROMO notice is current on the toolkit and Charter pages before relying on either route for a dated event.

Related guides:

• How to Start Applying for Canadian Heritage Funding in Canada — the funding side of the same Canadian Heritage Online System: registering an organization, choosing a program, and submitting a funding application
• Federal Services Roadmap: Starting and Running a Business with the Government of Canada — the order to work through federal portals, for readers sorting out which federal account or filing comes first
• How to Start Requesting Government Records Through the ATIP Request Service in Canada — another federal online request route, for readers who need government-held records rather than printed material
• How to Buy Government Surplus in Canada — buying surplus federal goods, for readers looking for government items beyond the free material in this guide

Sources

• Canadian Heritage, National Flag of Canada Day toolkit — February 15 — free Flag Day promotional material, the item list (posters, stickers, paper hand flags, maple leaf tattoos), the December-to-January ordering window, the register-then-order sequence, and the downloadable toolkit material
• Canadian Heritage, Description of the National Flag of Canada — educational items by mail and promotional items for special occasions through the Canadian Heritage Online System
• Canadian Heritage, Download or order the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights — print sizes (certificate 28 cm x 34 cm, poster 46 cm x 60 cm), the PROMO application outage notice and the droitsic-cirights@pch.gc.ca email route, downloadable PDFs, Braille and ASL versions, Indigenous-language and other-language versions, and the copyright notice
• Canadian Heritage, Video — Create an account in the system — GCKey and sign-in partner sign-in, GCKey sign-up steps, terms of use, Register with first name, last name and email, the emailed PIN, and Link Account
• Canadian Heritage, Video — Overview of the Canadian Heritage Online System (CHOS) — the welcome page, My Profile, FAQ and Help tab, My Organizations, the funding application steps, and the Cultural Tax Credit Certification tab

No delivery time, shipping cost, quantity limit, per-order limit, or Celebrate Canada (Canada Day) ordering window is stated in this guide, because none was verified on an official page. Figures and claims left out of this guide: a Canada Day ordering deadline, which appears only in a 2017 information sheet and is stale; any statement that shipping is free, since the pages call the items free but say nothing about shipping; any delivery timeframe; any claim about who is eligible to order beyond the toolkit page's "new user" registration wording; and any step-by-step of the order form's fields, since no page shows the form. The PROMO outage is carried as a live notice from the Charter page, not as a permanent state — recheck the page before ordering printed Charter copies. The Flag Day December-to-January window is carried as stated on the toolkit page; confirm it is current in the ordering year.