Good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome to our annual public meeting. Bonjour bonjour à tous et à toutes.

At the bottom of the Zoom Webinar window, you will see the option to have this event broadcast to you in English or French.

Please select the language of your choice by clicking on the Globe button. If you require close captioning, please select this feature along the bottom of your screen close to where you would turn on simultaneous translation by selecting show subtitle.

So, thank you very much, all of you for joining us today. I am Chantal Guay. I am the CEO of the Standards Council of Canada and I'm very proud to represent and lead SCC for the past seven years.

So, I want to begin this meeting by acknowledging that I join you from the traditional unceded unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.

As a guest, I am honored to gather here today, and I thank all the generations of Anishinaabe Algonquin people who have and continue to take care of this beautiful land.

Since we also meet today on a virtual platform, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of the lands which we all call home. We do this to reaffirm our commitment and responsibility in improving relationships between nations and our own understanding of local indigenous peoples and their cultures.

From coast to coast to coast, we acknowledge the ancestral and unceded territory of all the Inuit, Métis and First Nations people that call this land home.

I am thrilled today to be joined by François Coallier, the new chair of our Governing Council.

François has been a very active member of the standards development community for many years and he has had a seat on our governing council since 2018. He was appointed earlier as chair this year by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Minister François Philippe-Champagne.

We will open our annual public meeting with some background of the work of SCC and highlights from last year and then we will dive into what's next for SCC.

As members of the audience, you will have the opportunity to ask questions in the Q&A feature at the bottom of your screen, which will be moderated.

We will aim to answer as many questions as we can. If we do not get to your questions, we will follow up with you if you leave us your email address in the chat.
Or you can reach us any time by emailing us at info@scc.ca. Today's event will be recorded and shared on our website.

So, let's begin. Standards and conformity assessment work behind the scenes to make life safer, healthier, and more sustainable for Canadians and around the world.

They build public trust in products, services. They open access to markets and give Canadian companies a competitive edge.

They are powerful tools that can help address societal challenges and emerging issues from climate change to AI to mental health services.

But none of this is possible without the amazing and dedicated people in Canada's standardization network. Every second year, we present the SCC Awards to honour the incredible work being done in the standards and conformity assessment community.

But this year is not an award season. Still, I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who dedicates their time and expertise to keep the standardization ship sailing along.

Now, I would like to properly introduce Dr. François Coallier, who will be sharing highlights about our work of the past year.

François is a full professor at the Department of Software and IT Engineering at L’École de Technology Superior in Montreal one of Canada's leading engineering schools.

He holds an MASC and a PhD in electrical engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal. He began his contributions to standards development back in 1984 by participating in the development of software engineering standards at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, also known as IEEE. François is currently the international chair of the subcommittee responsible for the elaboration of standards for the internet of things and digital twin.

And he is also the internal chair of the new IEC/ISO, Joint Systems Committee on Bio-digital Convergence.

And is also the chair of the CSA Group Strategic Steering Committee on ICT systems.

And chair of the Canadian JTC1 mirror committee. François, thank you so much for being here with us today, the floor is yours.

Bonjour à tout et à tous. It's a great honour for me to be here this afternoon.

Since I'm new in this role, I'd like to take a moment to introduce myself. As mentioned by Chantal, I've been around in the standards world for quite a while.

When I got involved in, in the eighties, I was what we now call a young professional a few years out of my engineering school.

Initially participating in and contributing to standards development was a facet of my corporate work. But I soon discovered that this participation contributed significantly to my personal and professional development. Those working meetings were an opportunity to interact with colleagues from several organizations and countries and thus to broaden my horizons.

Contributing to the development of standards is also very fulfilling.

It is a way, in fact, to quote one of my mentors, to make a difference. Why? This is because standards are part of our technological, economical, and social infrastructure.

Unfortunately, invisible, I think as was mentioned by Chantal. Standards enable not only technical interoperability, but also human and social interoperability and thus the global economy.

As well as an enabler for a sustainable secure and safer world. As you can see, very keen believer in standardization.

This is why I've been involved all those years and I'm still looking forward to many more years of being involved and contributing.

So, I am looking forward, working with SCC as chair of this governing council to help it fulfill its mission.

So now, I will dive into a few highlights of SCC 2022-2023 annual report, which was entitled Amplifying our Impact. Traditionally, standardization has been bringing a certainty and trust to consumer product, food, and infrastructure.

From our refrigerator to our phone to the building we live and work in. Today, our world is facing urgent and interconnected challenges.

From the environment to public health to the digital economy.

We need to amplify the impact of standardization to bring the same certainty and trust to more areas that matter to people in Canada and around the world.

But to be successful, we also need to broaden our consideration, our consultation, and the people we engage with to ensure Canada's standardization system meets the economic and social need of everyone.

To better illustrate how we have deepened our impact and extended SCC's work into new sectors, I'd like to invite Alec Clark, Manager of Programs, to speak about work in the digital economy.

So Alec, you have the floor.

Merci François. SCC has been expanding its work into new sectors to better reflect the priorities and needs of people living in Canada and the world.

There is a growing understanding that standards are not just technical specifications, but they can also support societal change.

This has increased the demand for standards in new areas such as the digital economy. This is a key area where SCC has been focusing its efforts in the past years.

One of our focuses has been to advance Canadian leadership in the digital economy space through participation in the development of international standards.

A prime example of where Canada’s voice is well represented is ISO/IEC joint technical committee one, subcommittee 42 on artificial intelligence.

Within this committee, SCC led the development of ISO/IEC 42001, an AI management system standard.

In parallel to this standard being developed, we've also been working on the conformity assessment side of it to ensure we bring the full potential of standardization.

Working closely with Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada, we launched a first of its kind pilot in 2022 and 2023.

It defines and test requirements for a conformity assessment scheme for AI. What was unique about this program is that it was developed in parallel with the draft standard on AI management systems.

Usually, conformity assessment programs are developed after the standard is published. But since AI is quickly evolving, we didn't want to wait.

And we wanted to ensure we would be able to offer a program quickly that met the needs. This flexible approach allows for the standardization system to keep pace with the advancement of AI technologies.

It can also be applied to other emerging and quickly evolving technologies that would benefit from having conformity assessment available as soon as the standard is published.

As you can continue to shift towards the digital economy, there is also increased need for standards to govern digital credentials and the digital trust systems that issue and verify those credentials.

We are working with the Government of Canada to lead the development of consensus-based standards and conformity assessment tools for digital credentials and digital trust services in Canada.

To continue our direct engagement with people living in Canada, SCC also established the AI and data governance standardization collaborative.

To bring together stakeholders from various sectors, including civil society, industry, academia, and government.

Where we can discuss policy trends, assess AI and data governance standards in Canada, and identify opportunities where standardization can serve as a tool to support the evolving AI and data landscape.

That work is ongoing today. We know the rapidly evolving sectors like AI require close coordination with key partners so underpinning much of our work are the international relationships that only SCC can make available.

SCC has strong partnerships with other standards organizations, for example the British Standards Institution. And the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, as well as the European standards bodies of CEN-CENELEC and the standardization bodies of the United States.

Ultimately, to unlock the full potential of emerging sectors, standards are not just the right tool. They are the best tool. They are fast, they are consensus based, they are trustworthy, and they are secure.

And they have the potential to engage all stakeholders. Thank you. And back to you, François.

Thank you very much, Alec. That was very informative and I'm excited to see what come next in this space and how standardization will help shape our future.

Now I'd like to invite Alejandro Trujillo, Manager of Regulatory Affairs, to speak on how SCC has broadened its engagement to ensure we bring different experience and perspective.

So, Alejandro, the floor is yours.

Thank you, François, and hello, bonjour à toutes. I'm very pleased to be here today to talk about SCC’s work in a very important topic that affects all segments of society and populations across Canada, that's mental health and substance use health. 
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated mental health and substance use health challenges underlining existing gaps in services and the urgent need for action.

In March, 2022, the Government of Canada announced a collaboration with SCC to launch a standardization initiative to help improve the services for mental health and substance use health in Canada.

This initiative included the following tasks:
The creation of a national mental health and substance use health standardization collaborative.

The development of standards-based documents in six priority areas. And an analysis of the current accreditation and conformity assessment landscape in the area of mental health and substance use health.

So now, I will give you a brief overview of each of these tasks.

For the standards and conformity assessment to improve the well being of people in Canada, it needs to engage with a wide range of interested parties with different experiences and perspectives.

But more important in the case of mental health and substance use, it needs to hear, learn, and reflect the voices of those most affected.

This is essential to help ensure that the standardization system reflects the full spectrum of voices and needs in Canada.

In 2022, the National Mental Health and Substance Use Health standardization collaborative was established to coordinate standardization efforts nationwide.

Over two years, the collaborative brought together over 300 people from government, First Nations, Inuit and Métis, governments and communities, experts, academics, researchers, people with lived and living experience, pan-Canadian health organizations and standards development bodies.

Each member of the collaborative brought their unique perspective. All united by a common goal, to develop a comprehensive standardization roadmap to describe the existing and the desired national standardization landscape for mental health and substance use health systems and services in Canada.

The roadmap is not just a document. It's a strategic plan that identifies areas for improvement and proposes actionable recommendations to bridge existing gaps and explore new avenues for standardization.

The roadmap focuses on four priority areas: foundation and integration, primary health services integration, children and youth, and people with complex needs.

The roadmap outlines 24 key issues and resulting recommendations identified by the collaborative. It emphasizes the impact of mental health and substance use health on individuals and organizations and highlights unique national experiences.

The issue analyzed in the roadmap range from promoting the stigma free language, embracing diverse evidence and experiences to insurance accountability, human rights, and health equity.

The roadmap emphasizes harm reduction principles, respects First Nations, Inuit and Métis knowledge systems and upholds the privacy and confidentiality of individuals.

Complimenting the outcomes of the roadmap, SCC also conducted five separate consultations to broaden its engagement with people across Canada.

These consultations are for critical opportunities to involve the general public at key stages of the roadmap development.

The consultations included specific outreach to indigenous communities, an anti-racism focus group, discussions on substance use health, and evaluations of conformity assessment and accreditation programs.

For the second task of this initiative, parallel to the work of the roadmap, SCC partnered with different organizations to develop standards-based deliverables in six priority areas in alignment with the 2017 provincial and territorial shared health priorities.

This task was an opportunity for SCC to make use of its flexible standards-based solutions. The guidelines for this suite of solutions apply to accredited and unaccredited processes and proved to be a good feat for the evolving and original needs in the area of mental health and substance use health.

The six deliverables and priority topics were the following:
A workshop agreement on integrating mental health and substance use health with primary care in Canada.

A gap assessment and a comprehensive review and public consultation on what is needed to ensure the quality, safety, transparency and what is needed to ensure the quality, safety, transparency, and effectiveness of apps for mental health and substance use health.

A Pan-Canadian guidance for integrated youth services with 10 principles for improving integrated care for youth.

A workshop agreement for early psychosis intervention.

A workshop agreement on substance use health related withdrawal management services in Canada.

And a publicly available specification for substance use health competencies for prescribers

All these deliverables uphold integrity of the standardization system by requiring consultation, collaboration, transparency, and neutrality, and very important, participation of subject matter expert and affected parties, including people with lived and living experience.

Finally, the third task, complementing the roadmap and the six deliverables. SCC partnered with health standards organization to evaluate the needs and opportunities related to the accreditation and component assessment of mental health and substance use health services in Canada.

All the three tasks have been completed. They were completed at the end of March. We are now in the process of refining and finalizing the design of each of the documents that were produced through these tasks and the necessary translations before their publication later in the year. Thank you.

Thank you, Alejandro. I believe it is very important to broaden the range of people we work with and engage if you want the standardization system to reflect the full spectrum of needs.

Now, I'd like to briefly mention a few other accomplishments in Fiscal 2022/2023.

We launched the National Standards Strategy, which is a strategy for the whole standard system and not just SCC.

It was developed through engagement with hundreds of interested parties across Canada. It set a clear path forward for everybody involved in Canada's standardization system, detailing explicit priorities to amplify our reach. To be more agile in how we respond to emerging need and to be more inclusive, so standards are truly for everyone.

Chantal will address how it has played a role in determining SCC new priorities. We also supported the development of ISO Net Zero guideline.

SCC was part of the ISO delegation at COP-27 in Egypt to promote the guidelines and show how it can help countries transform climate commitment into action. The importance of standards was also noted in Canada National Adaptation Strategy.

We receive funding to support the strategic delivery to help our country adapt to the realities of climate change. We would have many to share.

I invite you to read our annual report to learn more about our successes. Now back to Chantal to speak about what is coming next for SCC, Chantal?

Thank you so much, François, Alec and Alejandro for those highlights.

I'm very happy to share with you today the journey we've been on at SCC.

It is very very clear to me and that's why I come to work every day that standardization improves lives.

I believe in what we do. And how we can have a great impact on people's lives. As you've heard, François mentioned, we have a very proven record in traditional areas such as electrical safety. We're so good at it that people forget it's there.

So we want to bring the same trust and the same confidence in more complex areas such as the digital space.

And climate action. And we've been doing a lot of work in these areas in the past few years.

But our strategy needed and needs to reflect what we're doing and where we are going. So today I would like to share with you a high level at a high level, our new strategic framework.

So, slides will now appear on the screen. So, if you want to choose French or English, you go to the top button called view and you'll be able to choose if you want to see the slides in French or in English.

So, we started down the path of renewing our strategic framework based on our new vision. Our new why and our target right so and it is to put the power of standardization to work for all.

This new vision has helped us refresh our mission. So, what we do is to lead and facilitate the use of standardization.

To improve the lives of people living in Canada. And it was also very important for us, to refresh our values.

Values guide everything we do, and our work and those values were actually co-developed with the entire organization.

And it was very important for us to make sure that the values we were going to choose were speaking to everyone.

So, our four values are: we are people focused. We are purposeful. We are forward thinking, and we work as one.

So, with this, the new vision, reaffirms our new core values and the guidance that we have received through the exercise we did in developing the national standardization strategy with all our interested parties and partners.

Led us to develop four new strategic objectives. The first one I've spoken to about it and François as well is to enhance -

Can you please change the slide? Sorry. Oh no, it's there. Perfect.

So, we had four strategic objectives. The first one is to enhance the understanding and the use of standardization in key communities.

And we, as we have mentioned, the standardization system has delivered incredible outcomes when it comes to health and safety for 100 years and we're so good at it that sometimes it's overlooked, people forget it's there, it's not visible, so we want to make sure we can continue to shine the light on the value that it has brought to a Canadian society for decades.

So, we're going to have an important focus on enhancing the understanding and the use. In particular in those areas where the standardization system might not have been as involved as in the traditional areas such as electrical safety.

The second and very important pillar, is linked to that national standardization strategy we spoke about.

So, we want to make sure that we deliver on the five key areas that have been identified within the National Standardization strategy, the digital economy being one, health and safety being another one, climate change and sustainability, etc.

And ensure as well that we are able to design a process to keep that list of priorities current.

So that's an important aspect of it, continuing to understand the needs and making sure that the standardization system remains relevant in meeting those needs, as we go forward. And some of you in attendance today might have participated in our consultations in the past so I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's engaged with us.

I know that it was a lot of effort as François mentioned but it certainly provides us a path forward for the system.

And that it has also informed us on where we should focus our efforts. So again, for the next year, we want to continue to focus our efforts on two priorities.

Digital economy and climate and sustainability. The other very important aspect of our strategic refresh has to do with how we deliver our service.

And it was very important for us to ensure that we were very well coordinated within SCC and that’s because we're actually quite unique.

We are the national standards body, but we also have conformity assessment and through the accreditation work that is being done that is within our organization and that offers a very interesting spectrum of solutions for those that work with us.

So, we wanted to make sure that we were very well integrated. And coordinated internally to be able to provide that full spectrum of services to the partners we work with.

Finally, also something that is sometimes maybe obvious, but for us it has always been an important strategic pillar of our strategy and our corporate plan is organizational excellence.

You know, you cannot achieve great work if you don't have the right tools, if you don't have the right processes - if you don't have the right internal systems to support you in having a high-performing culture.

And for sure, at SCC and personally, I believe that there is a very, very strong and a direct connection between investing in our culture - People focused and caring and high-performing - and how we achieve our success and the impact we can have as an organization.

And on that note, I am extremely proud to share that last week, SCC received for the second time the award for being one of Waterstone's most admired cultures in Canada. Receiving the award really recognizes our ongoing intentional work to foster our high performance and people focused culture.

So I want to thank each and every SCC employee as every one of them is shaping our culture.

And I would like now to play a short video that we did to celebrate our award. Please.

At Standards Council of Canada, everybody contributes to our people-centred and very performing culture. Our values reflect our culture and we are committed to living them every day.

Our leaders really empower us to recognize each other.

We work hard while also making sure to support each other and prioritize our own well being.

We are committed to continuous learning and development.

My colleagues value my work, my ideas. It’s a great place to be.

As CEO, I am not the culture, we are all the culture.

We are people focused.

We are forward thinking.

We are purposeful.

We work as one.

So that is it, at a high level, the direction that SCC is going towards. If you want to have more information, our new corporate plan, which includes our objectives for the next year's will be posted on our website in the coming weeks.

And do not hesitate to ask any questions you might have as well as using the Q&A feature on your screen.

But before we go to the questions, I would like to thank every member of the team at SCC for the commitment and their engagement.Their work makes a real difference, every day.

I also want to thank the thousands of members of our technical committees that make a difference every day, our governing council and our partner organizations, the standards development organizations as well as the provinces and territories for the continued support. As well as those who place their trust in us as their accreditation partner.

So in closing, I would like to thank everyone for attending today. Let's continue to work together to open a world of possibilities and put the power of standardization to work for all.

François and I will be very pleased to answer any questions you might have.

So, the floor is open for questions.

Okay, so I have the first question it has to do with digital services.

So, I hope that the information that my colleague Alec shared was useful. And that if you have more questions around our plan, we will be delighted to reply back through via email to your answer, To your question, sorry.

The second question has to do with the mental health roadmap link as I think Alejandro mentioned, will be available in the next few weeks. So again, if you don't mind leaving us, information your contact info, we can certainly, send you the link as soon as the document is published.

So the third question is, that's about the slides, Annie, you want to answer that question?

Annie, we can't hear you, I believe.

I'm so sorry. So now I hope you can hear me. So yeah, so the, all of the meeting today, the presentation and the video which I understand had no sound, it will all be posted on our website in the coming days.

So, I invite you to visit our website to get the material.

Merci beacoup Annie. Are there any other questions?

Next question has to do with deliverables, how we measure and monitor. So, we do our best to identify through a logic model what is the potential, the actual desired outcomes and the impact of those deliverables. I must say that in a context of standardization it takes time to measure impacts and I'll give you an example.

We have a program on innovation where we were there to support innovators mainly to access markets either here in Canada or abroad through standardization.

And what we did is we designed with them a survey to measure the impacts because obviously if we're there to support innovators, what we're interested in is to open markets because we want to see their revenue grow. We want to see potentially their employment grow and their exports grow…

I'm very happy to say that although the program is now finished, those that participated in the program in the past six years have seen substantial but very interesting growth in revenue in exports and in increased employment.

So that's one way that we are trying and every time we define basically an objective, we do look into what are the desired outcomes and also how can we measure the impact but not always easy in a context of standardization where it where it takes time.

There is also a question about additional funding that we received, so we're very happy to see that in the budget we will be receiving additional support for SCC and we are actually internally discussing how this this additional funding will be used, it is to support and maintain operations for SCC.

More questions?

Okay. How does one get involved with a patent? When a patent is granted. Loreen, I would suggest that we get in touch with you to answer the question.

That would take a little bit of time to explain.

What other questions? And maybe you can help me.

Yes, there is a question on what is the focus on equity. Where does that fit?

Okay, that's a very good question. Thank you for it. So we have been very interested in the past, I would say, three years at SCC in equity, diversity, and inclusion. That started through an important international movement to ensure that when standards are developed and created that they are gender responsive.

We have signed a declaration with the UNECE, and that actually fosters the development of gender responsive standards.

And we have actually a member of the team has led the development of guidance.

Sometimes it's not very obvious that standards might have actually an impact if you're a man or woman.

And we are working with the technical community here and internationally to provide tools and guidance so that gender is considered and potential impacts are identified so that they can be mitigated, implemented within the standard.

So that's a lot of the work that we have been doing externally.

I would say internally we have a very comprehensive strategy, we call it our IDEAS strategy so “inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility” and would be delighted to share more if you want by connecting potentially with you to share a little bit what we have been doing.

There's another one. We have actually a few. Since the standards development is a key service, what is being done to improve committee funding?

That is why - we thank you for the question - that is why we have been asking for more permanent funding from the federal government and we have luckily have received some temporary funding in the future.

So that is something that it remains top of mind. We are also, that is also why in our pillar number one around enhancing understanding and value of a standardization system.

That's why we have a pillar like that because we believe that it's very important that, those experts that have been dedicating time and resources for sometimes a long time to help participate in standardization development at the international level.

We can continue to support them. One thing is certain, however, in the future is there are priority areas where we want to make sure that that we are supporting efficiently those committee members and that's certainly going to be an approach in the future as being very focused and hopefully increasing the support going forward.

Thank you. Another one around what is SCC, how are we following work on the ESGs, environmental social and governance at ISO. Are we involved, and what's our, I guess our role there.

Yeah, so, environment, societal and governance, are together the letters ESG, a very, very popular topic these days and we actually have been the organization or the national standard body leading the initiative at the international level.

We firmly believe that, obviously, disclosures and the standards of disclosures are very important.

But in order to have real outcomes, we firmly believe that standards, management standards in particular are key in delivering the desired results. The desired targets.

So, we are leading actually and supporting the development of an international workshop agreement on ESG. The work has been initiated and more to come in the coming months.

But certainly, a very important topic. And lots of work in outreaching to other organisations such as those responsible for disclosures and standards on disclosures.

Thank you. There's another one: is the AI management system standard practiced by Canadian companies and if so to what level?

That standard, which is a very important one, the development of that standard was created or happened because of the leadership of Canada. It's actually Canada that proposed that such a standard be developed.

It was issued at the end of 2023. I don't have personally I don't have data on uptake.

Certainly, we know that is a very important standard that will be helpful to all organizations.

And what we know is that we have piloted it because it was important for us to understand the challenges in using that standard going forward and we actually did the piloting while the standard was being developed. So, we have been able to influence the finalization of that standard.

Certainly, more to come on this, but I have been and many of my colleagues involved in that program have been involved in many conferences where there is a great interest by many organizations, including some federal departments, to adopt that standard and implement it.

Thank you. Another one. What is the importance of physically attending international meetings vs attending via zoom.

Okay. Excellent question. I must say that before COVID happened, you would have asked the technical community if it was possible to actually develop standards without being in person and they would have all said, it's impossible.

We had to, we had to, right?

So, I think we've learned, and a lot of the choices made now are to have more transactional meetings done in a virtual way and keeping the in-person meeting to really focus and target at where there is, for example, a lack of consensus or issues. 
So, I think that Covid actually has helped us understand that there is work that can be done online very efficiently.

And to keep those, again, keep those in-person meaning for you know, meaty conversations and conversations where there is less consensus.

We're doing a hybrid mode a lot. One thing that we've also learned is it's preferable that that all people have the same experience. What I mean by that is it's either all there or you're all virtual but merging the two sometimes it’s not always easy and it increases the challenges and having everybody feeling like they're having the same experience, and they feel engaged and involved as the same way.

Lots of questions today. Wow!

Okay. Lots of questions. There are a few that are very, very specific Chantal, so we have taken, email addresses and questions and notes and, if we didn't have a chance to get your questions we will be following up via email.

And people can also contact us at all times at our info@scc.ca email.

Yes, so I think it sums up the question period.

And Annie, again, just letting everybody know, that don't hesitate to write to us and we'll make sure that if we haven't replied to your question and sometimes it might be, we can't really answer the question because it's not, for example, it's not under our responsibility, but we'll certainly do our best to answer those questions that we can.

Thank you, so, I guess this brings us to the end of our annual public meeting.

I do hope that it was informative and enlightening. If you are interested in exploring an area of standardization that is unfamiliar or new to you, or if you have yet to participate in Canada's standardization network, I really encourage you to get involved.

Visit our website at scc.ca and connect with us on social media to join our community. We're very active on LinkedIn, so don't hesitate.

Merci beaucoup. I wish you all a very wonderful rest of the day. Take care and stay safe.

Thank you.