The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) accredits Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) to develop standards that meet the needs of industry, government and consumers.
Requirements for the SDO Accreditation Program are defined in Requirements & Guidance - Accreditation of Standards Development Organizations. SCC requirements meet other accepted international standards best practices derived from the World Trade Organization’s Technical Barriers to Trade and the following Canadian principles:
- Equal access and effective participation by concerned parties
- Respect for diverse interests
- Openness and transparency
- Clear development processes
- Best interest of Canadians
- Avoiding duplication of standards or overlap with the work of other SDOs or with the work of relevant international or regional SDOs.
SCC accredited SDOs are responsible for the development, publication, and maintenance of National Standards of Canada (NSCs), National Adoptions of Canada (NACs), and Consensus SDO Standards.
Self-Declaration Status
“Self-declaration status” was introduced by SCC in the updated 2017 Accreditation Requirements (below), in order to support SCC’s objective to provide the standards needed by Canadian stakeholders more quickly.
These requirements and guidance now facilitate SCC-accredited SDOs to self-declare compliance, through a process efficiency whereby the SDOs’ projects are verified for compliance on a sample basis rather than by the verification of all projects.
This is made possible by additional system controls that are already in place. For example, SDOs undergo an annual assessment verifying the compliance of their projects. SDOs are also required to follow a quality check process to ensure they have completed all required steps of standards development before the publication of their standards.