Terms of Reference: External Advisory Committee on Regulatory Competitiveness

Mandate

The Committee’s overarching mandate will be to advise Treasury Board by providing recommendations on how to promote and advance regulatory excellence and support the modernization of Canada’s regulatory system. Regulatory excellence supports innovation, competitiveness and economic growth while achieving health, safety, security, and environmental outcomes.

The advice is to be based on consensus and reflect a diverse range of voices from business (including small and medium-sized enterprises), academia, Canadians, and consumer groups.   

Principles

To ensure that the External Advisory Committee on Regulatory Competitiveness operates effectively and fulfills its role in supporting the Government of Canada’s regulatory modernization agenda, it will be governed by the following set of principles:

  • Impartiality: the Committee will formulate its advice in an impartial, objective, and fair manner
  • Consensus-based: the Committee will strive for and provide its consensus-based views to the Treasury Board, taking into consideration a diversity of viewpoints and rooted in careful and comprehensive consideration of the input from all committee members
  • Timeliness: the Committee will provide its input within the time frames required

Activities

The Committee will:

  1. support the advancement of recovery initiatives and provide advice to Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to make the regulatory system more flexible, adaptable and sustainable
  2. provide advice to TBS on the development of policy/guidance on stock reviews
  3. provide advice to TBS on updates to the Cabinet Directive on Regulation
  4. monitor the advancement of recommendations made by the previous committee and provide guidance on addressing the recommendations e.g., cumulative regulatory burden, competitiveness data, consultation and engagement

The President of the Treasury Board may additionally identify and task the Committee with studying particular issues of interest.

Composition and membership

The Committee will be composed of up to eight members, including the Chair. It will have business and academic representation and will also benefit from representation of citizen and consumer interests. The Chair will be selected by the President of the Treasury Board from among the members.

The membership should be inclusive and reflective of the diversity of the Canadian population. To promote diversity, members may be asked to complete a voluntary self-identification questionnaire.

Committee members will participate on a pro bono basis without remuneration. Eligible travel and accommodation expenses for members will be reimbursed in accordance with the Government of Canada Travel Directive when in-person meetings are required. Members will be asked to serve on the Committee for a specified term with possibility of renewal. All members are subject to a Pro Bono Services Agreement which governs their term of service.

Roles and responsibilities

Members are expected to participate in Committee meetings and meaningfully contribute to the Committee’s work. Alternates are not permitted.

Members are chosen on an individual basis and not as organizational representatives. Members are not expected to be experts in all subjects the committee may study.  Members are expected to help determine research priorities for the committee. Members are also expected to undertake outreach to their own stakeholder networks to help inform committee discussion.

In consultation with EACRC members, TBS would identify research priorities that support the mandate of the EACRC. The research would be used as the basis for a series of EACRC discussions and inform the resulting advice given to Treasury Board.

Advisory Committee operations and support

The Committee is expected to meet at least quarterly. Meetings will be held virtually until such time as public health guidance permits in-person gatherings, after which there may be at least an annual face-to-face meeting. All secretariat and analytical support will be provided by TBS.

Transparency

Recognizing the importance of keeping the public informed with respect to the Committee’s purpose, membership, and activities, these terms of reference and Committee members’ names will be made public. Furthermore, a summary of the outcomes of these meetings along with all advice and recommendations made by the committee will be published on the Canada.ca website. TBS will also publish updates on how the government is addressing the committee’s recommendations.

Confidentiality and privacy

Members of the Committee may discuss or review confidential or sensitive issues and documents. Members should note that the confidentiality and privacy policies of the Government of Canada apply. As a consequence, members may be required to sign a security declaration. 

Members are not permitted to divulge any information to a third party without the prior consent of the Government of Canada. Any inquiries from third parties regarding the group’s activities should be referred to the Committee secretariat, hosted and staffed by TBS. 

Members should note that personal information is protected from disclosure under the Privacy Act and the Access to Information Act. Personal information is defined in section 3 of the Privacy Act as information about an identifiable individual that is recorded in any form. However, subsection 19(2) of the Access to Information Act permits the disclosure of personal information if there is consent, the information is publicly available, or the disclosure is in accordance with subsection 8(2) of the Privacy Act

Members recognize that their correspondence with officials of TBS is subject to the Access to Information Act, the Security of Information Act, the Privacy Act and the Policy on Government Security.

Members shall not make use of the information or documentation disclosed or provided to members in their capacity as a Committee member, except to the extent that it is demonstrably in the public domain, for any purpose other than their mandate as a member of the Committee.

The obligations set out in this section shall survive the expiration or termination of the Member’s position on the Committee.

Conflict of interest

Members acknowledge the importance of offering advice and recommendations that are independent and made in good faith.

Members shall disclose to TBS any advice which, if adopted and implemented by the Government of Canada, could result in direct or immediate financial gain to the Member, either professionally or personally, or to any of the Member’s family members or to any organization with which the Member is affiliated.

In the event that the Member also sits on another advisory committee or board of directors, the Member agrees not to share any information, documentation, deliberations, records or advice obtained, developed or given by or to the Committee members with the members of the other group, unless and until the Member is authorized to do so, in writing, by TBS or an official designated by TBS.

Members shall immediately report to TBS any circumstances in which the Member perceives a real, potential or apparent conflict or bias resulting from the Member’s roles on the Committee and any outside interests or activities, including organizational affiliations, other advisory committees or boards of directors. Should TBS or an official designated by TBS conclude that a real, potential or apparent conflict of interest exists involving the Member’s activities on the Committee and the outside interests or activities, he or she may require the Member to recuse themselves from participating in any related discussions or in the development of a recommendation, or terminate the Member’s membership in the Committee at TBS’s sole discretion.

In the event that the Member is already subject to the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector, the Conflict of Interest Act, the code of conduct for any other federal organization, or any other law, policy or regulation, the Member acknowledges that he or she remains bound by these provisions and shall comply with their requirements in performing his or her duties under the terms of this Agreement.

Changes to the Terms of Reference

The President of Treasury Board may amend these Terms of Reference at any time. Members will be notified of any changes.

Accepting to serve

By accepting to serve on the Committee, members agree to be bound by the conditions of the Terms of Reference.

End of service

A member’s service may be terminated at any time by either party on 10 days’ written notice.

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