Transport Canada and the tire industry are meeting this month to come up with guidelines to ensure safety standards are met on snow tires.

There are no legislated standards attached to the mountain snowflake symbol found on the sidewalls of snow tires, and groups like the Automobile Protection Association (APA) believe that leaves consumers at risk.

Transport Canada wants snow tires that carry the 'mountain-snowflake' symbol to meet regulatory standards. (CBC)

"It's the same thing you saw with pet food, or that we see with some food products, is that Canadian testing of imports from China and perhaps some other countries also, is sporadic," said APA president George Iny.

"There is a possibility of either counterfeiting or of just putting a logo on a product which hasn't been tested, but which you believe could pass the test," he said.

Even tires that legitimately carry the logo have only met minimum standards, Iny said, and may not meet the needs of winter driving across Canada. His organization has tested a number of brand-name tires and found a wide variation in performance.

How the tire is made is important

"It's not just a chunky tread, you need to have a soft rubber compound, and that soft rubber compound in the cold weather, that's what gives you the ability for the rubber molecules to sort of wrap around the aggregate, the ice crystals whatever they're trying to grip against," said Nigel Mortimer, head of recalls for Transport Canada.

"If it was a hard, hard rubber, like a hockey puck, who wants to drive around on hockey pucks in the winter time, because we all know they slide very well on the ice," added Mortimer, who was one of the people who developed the mountain snowflake symbol.

Mortimer said standards for using the mountain snowflake logo need to be toughened.

"There's a gentleman's agreement there," he said. "But if we get some offshore company, XYZ corporation decides to do it and fool the consumer into thinking this is a winter tire, then, yeah, that's a concern to us."

Tire industry officials are meeting with government to come up with standards for carrying the logo that include traction not just on snow but on ice as well.

Once the standards are set, the group hopes to conduct random testing and issue a national recall if tires fail. Those rules could be in place by spring, Mortimer said.