About us

Our world moves quickly - very quickly.

Most of the time, it’s like a choreographed dance in which everything just seems to work together.

We take it all for granted: quality, consistency, safety and we rarely think about how this all comes to be.

But behind almost everything in our lives is a sophisticated network of guidelines, rules, and requirements all designed to ensure things don’t go wrong.

What we’re talking about are standards – the carefully designed specifications for virtually all the products, services and processes that shape how people everywhere live, work and play.

Standards come to life through blueprints… in prototypes… on production lines… in workplaces and laboratories, hospitals and schools and street corners… guiding the way Canada builds and innovates and competes successfully in the global marketplace.

We are the Standards Council of Canada. Since 1970, we have been leading Canada’s standardization network - people working together to create standards and assess how we comply with them.  

Here’s what we do.

We safeguard Canadian interests by working with organizations to develop standards – these organizations share our passion and commitment to getting it right… every time.
 

We’re also a driving force in accreditation, ensuring that organizations called conformity assessment bodies operate at the highest possible level.  

Essentially, we test the testers. 
 

Consider the marks on your toaster or on the lights you use in your home every day. Those marks are only as reliable as the tests behind them - and it is because of these certification marks, from SCC-accredited bodies, that we can trust things that are essential to our well-being.

The Standards Council of Canada accredits hundreds of conformity assessment bodies, in Canada and throughout the world, that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services, and more.

We work with committees involving more than 15,000 Canadians – the people who work hard to develop and revise standards.

These committees determine the best way of doing things whether it’s safety, performance, efficiency, reliability or protecting the environment.  And they do this through an open and transparent approach, based on collaboration and consensus.

Beyond Canada’s borders, we help to set new global standards and work to improve standards that are already in place.

We ensure Canada’s voice and our input into global standards are heard at the highest international levels.
 

This is essential because globalization is changing the way we think about standardization and for us this means one standard, one test, accepted everywhere.

Yes, things move quickly. It’s pretty clear that change is constant and at the Standards Council of Canada, we believe that’s very exciting.

We’re proud of the work we do, delivering solutions to government and industry, working with consumer representatives, boosting Canada’s economy, driving innovation in the marketplace, and protecting and improving the overall quality of life for Canadians.

It’s our purpose and our passion.