Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. I appreciate an opportunity to bring the viewpoint of the Standards Council of Canada and provide our comments in support of Bill S-2.
I'm going to give you a little background on myself personally, because I've been involved in the standards field for close to 25 years. I was appointed as the CEO of the Standards Council of Canada five years ago. Prior to that I was the vice-president for standards development of the Canadian Standards Association, and I was responsible for the development and maintenance of probably 3,000 codes and standards.
Prior to that I worked for the Government of Ontario for 30 years. The last 10 years, I worked as an assistant deputy minister of a technical standards division in the government and I was also the president and CEO of the Technical Standards & Safety Authority. For that last 10 years I was responsible for referencing many national, regional, and international standards into Ontario regulations.
Incorporation by reference has great significance to the entire network of organizations and individuals involved in standardization. I talk about standardization in both senses of the term. Standardization includes the development of standards, but also the testing of products by accredited certification bodies.
Technical standards are among the external documents most often cited by Canadian regulators. SCC monitors the use of standards in regulations by federal departments and agencies. In May of this year, our inventory included 1,118 standards that are referenced in federal regulations. There are a number of departments and agencies that make the greatest use of standards in those regulations: health, transport, environment, natural resources, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, industry, and Employment and Social Development Canada.
Generally standards are referenced because they provide specifications and guidance to protect the health and safety of Canadians or to safeguard the environment. Examples of standards incorporated by reference in federal regulations include such things as laminated safety glass used in glass enclosures and balconies—you'll be aware of some court cases regarding the use of laminated safety glass—leak detection in fuel tanks, storage and transportation of explosives and dangerous goods, or the certification of organic foods.
In addition to those federal departments, there are thousands of referenced standards in provincial regulations. When you add in the standards referenced in Canada's model codes—and those model codes are the building, fire, and energy codes—you begin to comprehend the magnitude and consequences of the issues being addressed by this bill today.
There are now eight standards development organizations accredited by the Standards Council to develop standards in Canada. To maintain that accreditation, they must develop standards through a formal, rigorous process that is based on internationally accepted guidelines, including the World Trade Organization's code of good practice. That's a process that promotes open, transparent, and inclusive standards development. This is important to understand as you consider the ramifications in this bill.
The first step of the process is to create and maintain standards development committees that consist of a balanced matrix of representatives from affected stakeholder groups. That means that those people represent a combination of interests, expertise, perhaps even countries or regions. The valuable point at this stage, as you understand, is that no single group can dominate the agenda nor decide the outcome of the standard. Content is developed by the group through consensus.
Once consensus is achieved, the draft document is posted for public review and comment. Every comment must be examined and resolved by the technical committee; therefore, the outcome is much more accepted than if the rule were drafted by one group alone.
In addition, the developer of these standards is required to assess the need for revisions to the documents at least once within a five-year period. Many standards are in almost constant review and revision.
Federal regulators are among the experts participating in standards development committees. They're an integral part of the balanced matrix of interest that I mentioned. To give you a sense of scale, there are probably close to 365 federal government employees who actively participate in the development of just international standards. Those international standards are at ISO, the International Organization for Standardization; IEC, the International Electrotechnical Commission; or ITU, the International Telecommunications Union. That's just at the international level. Many hundreds more also participate in specific Canadian standards development activities for hundreds of standards that find their way into regulations.
Standards developed by either Canadian or international organizations can be submitted to SCC for approval as national standards of Canada. National standards of Canada provide regulators with clear confirmation, a stamp of approval you might add, that Canadian conditions and requirements have been appropriately considered. For a standard to become a national standard of Canada, public consultation with Canadians is required. NSCs must be made available in both official languages.
Although it is clear that many standards are incorporated by reference in federal regulations, our concern is that we've noted many challenges and inconsistencies in the methods by which incorporation by reference is currently being employed. Both the static and ambulatory methods of incorporation are currently being used. Both have merits in their own right. Unfortunately, we believe that the rationale and approach to a selection of a method of incorporation are not always understood or consistently applied by departments.
Each method has certain particularities which should be evaluated in the context of the rationale for citing that reference. For example, an important consideration would simply be, did the regulator participate in the technical committee of the standard in question?
For these reasons, and I'd like to support the earlier speaker, we believe that a government-wide policy or guideline, probably by Treasury Board, that provides guidance to regulators on the appropriate considerations is needed. We have witnessed first-hand the many benefits to Canadian regulators of using the drafting technique of incorporation by reference. For example, they leverage existing credible infrastructure without incurring additional costs, resources, or time.
But for the system to work, we believe that the references to standard and federal regulations need to be up to date and that standards used by regulators across jurisdictions need to be aligned when possible. This isn't just an issue for the Government of Canada. It's an issue for the 13 provincial and territorial governments.
Aligning regulatory requirements to regional or international standards is a way for regulators to establish compliance requirements without introducing additional red tape. That's because Canadian industry certifies many products to regional or international standards in order to access global markets.
In addition, referencing the latest available version of a standard in a regulation can contribute to higher levels of protections for Canadians. That's because new standards as a rule set the bar higher in terms of safety and performance.
In conclusion, it is evident to us that standardization represents a necessary and valuable complement to Canada's regulatory framework. Standards must be updated on a regular basis to reflect rapid changes in technologies, markets, and safety requirements. Therefore, it makes sense to equally modernize Canada's legislative framework to ensure that references to standards in federal regulations are accurate and reflect the latest available edition.
That's why we support this bill.
Thank you.