In our system we have a document called CAN-P-1, which we use for the accreditation of standards development organizations. There criteria in that document state that an organization is required to have a presence in Canada; that regulators and other users must be taking advantage of those standards now, and that the documents being produced as national standards in Canada must be available in both official languages. So there are criteria for the accreditation of these organizations.
Standards development organizations could apply to SCC for accreditation, and we would have to audit their capacity to deliver standards for the country, but doing so needs to be advantageous for Canada and for them.
We were very pleased to see ASTM, UL, NSF, and AHRI submit applications for accreditation, because we felt we had significant gaps in our standards catalogue. Now we have eight organizations that I think can collectively meet the needs of Canadians.
There may be applications from additional organizations in the future, but I would say that the bulk of the gaps we identified are now being filled by those eight organizations.