I'm going to turn to Begonia, because I know she wants to comment. I'll just say one more thing. I don't want to hog it here. The CSA, the Canadian Standards Association, which is the largest standards organization in Canada, began in the early 1930s along with CGSB. We existed and we worked collaboratively in different areas and largely in the private sector and the public domain. I will tell you that was when CGSB first began and we were called the Canadian Government Specifications Board. Our task then was to write specifications for government procurement, because at that time there was no central procurement entity in the Government of Canada. Every department did its own procurement. We unified the demand and the definition through the documents of CGSB.
As you know, that changed with the establishment of the Department of Supply and Services in the 1960s. Then we became part of the Department of Public Works. The evolution in Canada is very interesting. Canada has evolved a system—and it is quite distinct in the world, in my opinion—whereby we established in 1970 the Standards Council of Canada as an overarching authority. I was just having a chat about this. I'm not that old, but I know people who were around at that time and who were involved in those conversations. One of the reasons the Standards Council was established was to ensure there was no overlap or duplication among the different standards-writing bodies in Canada. We used to have something called subject area recognition, managed by the Standards Council, that would say, “CGSB, you have expertise here. CSA, you have expertise in that area”. All of that was very important to make sure there was no overlap, and I hear you.
Given the introduction of four more new standards bodies, if you're asking me if it is a more complex world, it is, absolutely. The challenge to maintain efficiency in the Canadian system is increased because we're also trying to harmonize Canadian standards with international standards. That's part of the challenge.
I do want to say that Canada has a rationalized system. In the United States they use a very different approach. It's more of an open market approach and you can have multiple standards for the same thing coming out of different organizations. Trying to meet four or five different standards is, in effect, a cost of business.
In 1970 Canada made a decision—again, it's my opinion—to have a rational model so that Canadian businesses and Canadian consumers all had a clear line in terms of that organization and its management. I'll turn it over to Begonia.