Government Operations committee  There is always a risk, which is why it is important for Canadian participation to be strong. If we develop a standard in Canada, with only Canadians, the voice is solely Canadian, but if we are working with other countries, our voice is a little diluted. Essentially, standardiz

Government Operations committee  Are you asking for a technical example?

Government Operations committee  First, I should say that I don't work in the technical area.

Government Operations committee  Yes. The members of certain committees wear what we call immersion suits in the course of their work. Now, these people work together. That said, a few years ago, someone from Transport Canada told me that he was a little concerned about the conditions in Canada, because the tem

Government Operations committee  That really is the mandate of the Standards Council of Canada. Their act very clearly stipulates that they are there to be the coordinator of the national standards system and to develop national standardization strategies. That really is their role. They do have a committee that

Government Operations committee  Yes, there is a little, even between ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission, or the IEC. These organizations work together in the sector. ISO and IEC have a joint committee, the JTC 1. Sometimes there is also a bit of competition between the major American standard

Government Operations committee  The CGSB provides a technical contribution, but it is so small that it is not involved in this competitive dynamic.

Government Operations committee  I just want to ask for a point of clarification, if you don't mind. Are you asking about the collaboration among the standards development organizations or among the broader stakeholders in the system?

Government Operations committee  I'll just add a little something regarding ISO. From a sheer volume point of view, I don't know how many thousand documents a year ISO publishes, but they have published something like 25,000 standards and other documents. So it terms of sheer volume and in terms of participation

Government Operations committee  The national standards system that we are part of represents only a fraction of the standards systems in Canada, and it's like that in all countries. We represent what's called the voluntary standards system, which falls under the area of ISO and the IEC, the International Electr

Government Operations committee  Thank you. I'd like to try to answer your question. We have two standards for organic food in Canada. We have the organic agriculture standard and the organic aquaculture standard. They are both national standards of Canada. They were financially supported by Agriculture Canada

Government Operations committee  I think I can answer your question. Back about four or five years ago we had 856 standards that were over five years old. As of April 15, we have 162, so that means we've addressed 81%—

Government Operations committee  The ones that are left will probably take between one and two years to be completed, but we are working on all of them.

Government Operations committee  No. We've never done that analysis on a case-by-case basis. We recently did an analysis of the petroleum committee, because we were—

Government Operations committee  Yes, it can be a guideline, but also a standard that gives public servants directives for their program. It may be a standard established for their program, for themselves.