Standards Council of Canada : The Standards Council of Canada was established in 1970 (18-19 Eliz. II, c.73) to foster and promote voluntary standardization in fields relating to the construction, manufacturing, quality, performance and safety of buildings, structures, manufactured articles and products and other goods, not expressly provided by law, as a means of advancing the national economy, benefitting the health, safety and welfare of the public, assisting and protecting consumers, facilitating domestic and international trade and furthering international cooperation in the field of standards. The legal basis was the Standards Council of Canada Act (RSC 1985, cS-16).
While not an agent of Her Majesty, the Standards Council of Canada was funded by government appropriations. Originally reporting under the Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce, during the 1981-82 fiscal year, the Council became the responsibility of the Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs.
The first president of the Council was JC Lessard, appointed on the 10 August 1971. The Council consisted of fifty-seven members, including: six federal representatives, ten provincial representatives and forty-one persons generally nominated by national associations. Efforts were made to ensure that the private sector representatives were geographically and linguistically balanced and that they were from all sectors of the economy. Appointments to the Council generally lasted for three years and meetings were usually held three times per year.
A nine-member Executive Committee was appointed by and from the members of the Council. As this group met eight times per year, they assumed responsibility for issues which developed between Council meetings. Membership of the Executive Committee included the President and Vice-President of the Council, a member designated by the Governor in Council, a provincial representative nominated by the Provincial representatives on Council and five members appointed by the Council recommended by a standing nominating committee.
Many standing and ad hoc committees were also appointed by the Council, including `The Advisory Committee on Standards for Consumers',`The Advisory Committee on Conversion to Metric (SI) Standards', `The Canadian National Committee of the International Organization for Standardization (CNC/ISO)', `The Canadian National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission', `The Ad Hoc Committee on a National Standards Information Service', etc.
The Council was empowered to recommend criteria and procedures for the preparation of voluntary standards and for testing and certification activities. It had the power to accredit standards-writing, testing and certification organization which met criteria established by the Council. These accredited organizations and various Canadian national committees concerned with international standards worked with the Council and thus constituted the major elements of the National Standards System. During the 1975-76 fiscal year, the Council assumed responsibility for the sale of ISO and IEC standards and publications in Canada. Also, on 1 April 1976, the Council took over the exchange of national standards with twelve other countries and the sale of those standards in Canada.
The organization (with some name changes through time) of the Council was along functional lines - National Standardization, International Standardization, Metric Conversion (dropped in 1980), Public Relations and Information (changed to Education and Information in 1975) and Administration.
On 1 September 1984 the Standards Council of Canada became a Crown Corporation (SC 1983-1984, c.31, Sched. C, pt. 1).
In 1996 an extensive public consultation led to amendments to the Standards Council of Canada Act, extending the scope of the SCC's activities to promote participation by Canadians in standardization activities; promote public and private sector cooperation; and address the environment, information technology, natural resource and service sectors. The amendments to the Act also reduced the Governing Council from 57 members to 15, authorized the SCC to sign recognition agreements with foreign counterparts and advise the federal aspects on international trade agreements, and implemented the National Standards System.
In 2000 the Canadian Standards Strategy was launched to provide direction and leadership on how to advance the social and economic well being of Canadians.
In 2002, Parliament issued an Order-in-Council to expand the list of countries in which the SCC accredit conformity assessment organizations to include members of the World Trade Organization.
