Verified against primary sources as of 21 August 2026. Laws and figures change — confirm current requirements before relying on this page.
Canada: 5 verified country-layer records — legal permit (2), legal obligation (3). 3 accreditation bodies are listed for this jurisdiction. Records span 3 jurisdiction levels: Federal (Canada), Ontario, Québec. Each record below carries its legal instrument, who it binds, and the date it was last verified against its primary source.
- Records
- 5
- Accreditation bodies
- 3
National accreditation
Mandatory and regulatory records
Verified from primary sources, grouped by how binding each one is. None of these is a certificate; each carries the instrument it comes from and the date it was last checked.
How this jurisdiction is structured
Standards Council of Canada is a federal accreditation body
The Standards Council of Canada Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. S-16, s.4(2)(d), gives the Council authority to accredit organisations that carry out conformity assessment activities in Canada. Its statutory mandate (s.4) is to promote "efficient and effective voluntary standardization" — the Act's own word is voluntary, not a claim of exclusive legal gatekeeping.
Official source ↗Last verified:
Not the only recognised accreditation body
Global ACI's own Full Members registry lists four Canada-linked accreditation bodies together: Standards Council of Canada, Accreditation Canada Diagnostics, CAEQ and the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation (CALA) — each accrediting a different scope. "SCC is Canada's accreditation body" understates this; which body applies depends on what is being accredited.
Official source ↗Last verified:
Find an accredited organisation
SCC's own site describes a search directory to "find an accredited organization" covering certification, testing, inspection and verification/validation bodies it accredits.
Official source ↗Last verified:
Federal employers' general duty to protect worker health and safety
The Canada Labour Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. L-2, Part II, s.124: "Every employer shall ensure that the health and safety at work of every person employed by the employer is protected." Part II applies only to federally regulated employment (e.g. banking, telecommunications, interprovincial transport) — most Canadian workplaces are instead covered by their own province's occupational health and safety law.
Official source ↗Last verified:
Ontario employers' general duty (a provincial example)
The Occupational Health and Safety Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. O.1, s.25(2)(h): an Ontario employer must "take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker." This is a provincial law, not the federal Labour Code — Canada's other provinces and territories each set their own occupational health and safety regime.
Official source ↗Last verified:
Incentive and support programs
The two federal programs below are verified and active as of 2026-08-21 — not a claim that this is every program available; provincial and regional programs exist separately and are not covered in this round.
CanExport SMEs
- Funder
- Global Affairs Canada — Trade Commissioner Service
- What it provides
- A grant contribution toward a small or medium-sized business's international market development activities, up to $50,000, assessed on a rolling competitive basis.
- Eligibility
- Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises. Detailed eligibility criteria are not yet confirmed at the article level (CA-VQ-15b).
Not yet confirmed: Applications for other eligible markets remain open — deadline extended to 31 August 2026 at 12:00 PM (ET), not end of day. Applications for US-market projects are no longer being accepted: the $3.1 million allocation for that stream has been fully allocated, though applications submitted before 30 June continue to be assessed. Processing takes up to 90 business days for US projects, 60 for other markets.
Official source ↗Last verified:
NRC IRAP (Industrial Research Assistance Program)
- Funder
- National Research Council of Canada
- What it provides
- Innovation advisory services and project funding for small and medium-sized businesses, including support for clean technology, intellectual property, artificial intelligence and new-graduate employment.
- Eligibility
- Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises.
Not yet confirmed: A December 2023 government announcement said IRAP is expected to move under a new Canada Innovation Corporation (CIC) by 2026-27; until that transition, it continues to operate through the National Research Council. Confirm the current administering body before citing it.
Official source ↗Last verified:
Trade & market access
15 agreements
| Agreement | Parties | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement) | United States, Mexico | In force 2020-07-01 | |
| CETA | European Union | In force 2017-09-21 | provisional application |
| CPTPP | 11 members | In force 2018-12-30 | |
| Canada-EFTA FTA | Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland | In force 2009-07-01 | |
| Canada-Korea FTA (CKFTA) | South Korea | In force 2015-01-01 | |
| Canada-UK Trade Continuity Agreement | United Kingdom | In force 2021-04-01 | |
| Canada-Ukraine FTA (modernized) | Ukraine | In force 2024-07-01 | |
| Canada-Chile FTA | Chile | In force 1997-07-05 | |
| Canada-Colombia FTA | Colombia | In force 2011-08-15 | |
| Canada-Panama FTA | Panama | In force 2013-04-01 | |
| Canada-Peru FTA | Peru | In force 2009-08-01 | |
| Canada-Jordan FTA | Jordan | In force 2012-10-01 | |
| Canada-Honduras FTA | Honduras | In force 2014-10-01 | |
| Canada-Costa Rica FTA | Costa Rica | In force 2002-11-01 | |
| Canada-Israel FTA (CIFTA) | Israel | In force 1997-01-01 |
Global Affairs Canada · retrieved
Frameworks & audits in Canada
Canada's cyber security certification for defence suppliers, run by Public Services and Procurement Canada and National Defence, with three levels.
CyberSecure Canada is a voluntary federal certification program for small and medium-sized enterprises, evaluated by a certification body accredited by the SCC.
CyberReady issues a validation or verification statement — not a certificate — for CAN/DGSI 104, the Digital Governance Council's SME cyber security baseline.
The Contract Security Program (CSP) screens contractors bidding on federal contracts that carry security requirements; PSPC administers it.
The Cyber Centre's CSP ITS Assessment Program assesses cloud services for GC procurement up to Protected B — the output is a report, not a certificate.