Government Operations committee  That's exactly right. We're here today because we're concerned about the impact of digital technologies on people and on our democracies. The reason we want to set standards to reduce these negative effects is that we don't want to go backward. We want these products and systems to be safe.

Government Operations committee  Right, they're not sandboxes.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for that great question. These are obviously not sandboxes where people throw things at each other. “Regulatory sandboxes” are places where people experiment. They experiment with various approaches to complying with an act. That's how it works for regulations.

Government Operations committee  I am sorry. In my world, it's about tangible products or intangible products. Here we're talking about applying fiscal policy. I would not have any advice or recommendations to make on that front. I apologize.

Government Operations committee  I think they're going in the right direction. Obviously, if there were more resources, they would probably be able to do it in a more expeditious manner. What I'm seeing is that there are more and more standards added to regulations, whether it's at the federal level, provincial level or territorial level.

Government Operations committee  In the paper, I have a list of some of the regulations in which standards are incorporated by reference. Some departments will take the “as amended from time to time” method, which allows new standards to be accepted as is when they are being published, so you don't need to go back and redraft your regulation every time.

Government Operations committee  I completely disagree with that. I was at the Standards Council of Canada for nine years. I was VP of policy there. I engaged with every single department and agency in Ottawa, and also the provinces. Regulators that are using standards are participating in standards development.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. It's a good question. It absolutely is, in my opinion, a step in the right direction, because you allow a conversation to take place between regulators and those impacted by future regulations. You allow them to play and try new things, so I think that's great. The only recommendation I would make is in terms of the wording.

Government Operations committee  I have, a couple of times.

Government Operations committee  Minister Anand is very interested in the concept of standards. I think she's interested in the idea of incorporation by reference, of having standards incorporated by reference in regulations. She thinks it's a good idea. I think she's looking at innovative ideas with interest. I will leave it at that.

Government Operations committee  There was a mention of 66,000 to 77,000 regulations. It must be quite different, depending on the jurisdiction, the ministry or the department, but openness and transparency.... I mean, you could design an approach through which it becomes a norm. I know that in my process for digital standards, everybody can become a member of a committee.

Government Operations committee  You have to establish the broad strokes first, and that means legislation. Laws set out what must be done and what must not be done to reduce risk. Regulations set out how all that is done. Given that technology is changing rapidly and that we're always reacting to the deployment of new technologies, here's my solution.

Government Operations committee  It's about openness and transparency. You have to be open and transparent before you start, as you're doing it and after you're done. If I can give you the standards track, committees have to be balanced. You can't have industry take all the seats. Industry has a quorum. Then consumers, academics and experts are also there, and they have a voice and a vote.

Government Operations committee  That's a good question. I'm not sure that this one-to-one idea, applied generically, will work for you, but what I know is that when you think about standards in federal, provincial, and territorial regulations—close to 10,000 of them—we know that they're useful and we know that they're dynamic and flexible.

Government Operations committee  That's a very good question. The title of the paper is that we need to establish a “New Approach”. That's a reference to the EU approach. Since 1985, the European Commission has had the authority to make standardization requests to its standards body. I was just out of university in 1985.