The rest of the mandate for the lab that I manage is to perform research. What we do is contribute to the development of consensus standards among Canadian and international organizations. To go back to pipelines, we develop standards for pipeline corrosion or for coatings that are used to protect line pipe from corrosion from the environment. Many of the standards, because pipelines are installed around the world, would be developed by organizations such as NIST in the U.S. or ASTM. Some of our scientists would be members of the committees.
But in the end, it depends on the locality in which the pipeline is installed to establish the norms to which the pipeline will have to perform. They might quote or cite an ASTM standard, or they might cite a national standard, but there is no consistency.