Regulatory Experimentation Expense Fund

Centre for Regulatory Innovation: Regulatory Experimentation Expense Fund

Overview

Are you a Canadian regulator endeavouring to regulate a new type of industry or product? Are you wanting to test out a new approach to regulating or see if a new technology is safe for Canadians before you decide how to regulate it? Running regulatory experiments helps create a more adaptive, competitive, and responsive regulatory environment by providing evidence for your decision-making. To learn more about why you should conduct a regulatory experiment, please click here.

Promoting a whole-of-government approach to regulatory innovation, the Centre for Regulatory Innovation supports regulators and the regulatory system meet new challenges and keep pace with technological advances by enhancing their capacity to undertake activities such as regulatory experimentation, sandboxes, co-development of regulations and more.

To support this goal, the CRI’s Regulatory Experimentation Expense Fund (REEF) serves to offset expenses incurred by departments/agencies in the course of undertaking approved regulatory experiments.

Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, proposed experiments must clearly demonstrate how their funding request meets the criteria as outlined in the REEF Guide.

Any Government of Canada regulator may apply for funding. Priority will be given to experiments where regulators have identified collaboration with regulated entities or other businesses with the aim of bringing applications of new and emerging technologies into the Canadian marketplace or enhancing competitiveness.

Funding
The total funding envelope available for REEF projects to begin in fiscal year 2022-2023 is $1,000,000. Funding will be available from April 2022 upon completion of a signed MOU with the successful applicants and TBS.

Key Dates for 2022-23 REEF Call-out

November 9, 2021: Call-out begins - Expressions of interest may be submitted. The CRI is available to discuss possible ideas for experiments.
Nov 9 – Dec 20: CRI to provide feedback to draft expressions of interest in advance of final submission.
January 14, 2022: Deadline for final expressions of interest to be submitted
Early February: Successful applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal
March 8, 2022: Deadline for submission of full proposals
Late March/Early April: Final funding decisions made by the CRI Steering Committee
April-May 2022 – MOU development and signing by TBS and Project Department

DOCUMENTS

REEF Guide

Expression of Interest (EOI) Template

Proposal Template

How to Apply for Funding
The CRI uses a two-step process to make funding decisions. The first step is an Expression of Interest to allow for an initial assessment of the alignment of a proposed experiment with the Fund before moving on to step two, the Proposal, where significant resources are put into the full development of an experiment.

1. Expression of Interest Submission

The first stage in the application process is the submission of an Expression of Interest (EOI) approved at the Director General level (or equivalent), that provides a brief overview and outline of the proposed experiment and applicant’s capacity to undertake the work. Further information on how to complete the EOI can be found in the REEF Guide. Applicants are also encouraged to attend a Webinar, which will allow you to ask the CRI team any questions you may have.

As of November 9, 2021 departments are able to submit EOIs to the Centre for Regulatory Innovation. Applicants are encouraged to submit their EOIs (or draft EOIs) as early as possible so that the CRI can provide feedback. Applicants that submit their EOIs early will have an opportunity to incorporate CRI feedback/revise one’s EOI before the deadline. All EOIs must be submitted via email to the Centre for Regulatory Innovation. Receipt of EOIs will be acknowledged via email. The deadline for submitting final EOIs is January 14, 2022 at 6:00 pm ET.

Submitted EOIs will be assessed to determine best fit with the overall objectives of the REEF. Successful applications will be determined based on the results of a competitive review process and budgetary considerations, as determined by the Centre for Regulatory Innovation. Applicants with ineligible, incomplete or unsuccessful EOI submissions will not be invited to continue to the next stage.

2. Proposal Submission

Successful EOI applicants will be invited to complete the second stage of the application process which is the submission of a full proposal. Further information on how to complete the proposal form can be found in the  REEF Guide, including accessing the Regulators’ Experimentation Toolkit to assist departments in designing regulatory experiments. Proposals will be assessed, and final funding decisions will be determined by an interdepartmental Steering Committee, made up of representatives from TBS, Privy Council Office, Innovation Science and Economic Development, Transport Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Health Canada, and the Community of Federal Regulators.

Contact us
For additional information about this funding opportunity, including any assistance required to complete the application process, please contact the Centre for Regulatory Innovation.

Regulatory Experimentation Expense Fund Experiments

Experiments selected to receive funding under the Regulatory Experimentation Expense Fund
Department/ Agency	Experiment Title	Experiment Description
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)	Enabling Regulators and Businesses to Ease Regulatory Burden through Digital Credentials and Wallets	ISED will partner with the Digital Identity Laboratory, an independent Canadian not-for-profit entity dedicated to providing services to the public and private sectors, to develop and pilot the bilingual digital credential educational approaches with regulators and other interested organizations. The objective of the experiment is to determine the best approach to increase trainees’ proficiencies and knowledge of Digital credentials and obtain information on how the training affects trainees buy-in toward this technology.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)	Using Experimentation in National Stakeholder Engagement to Advance Supply Chain Transparency (SCT) for Chemicals In Products	The experiment involves using a policy lab approach to engage Canadian stakeholders in co-developing new solutions to enhance supply chain transparency (SCT) for chemicals, in addition to developing recommendations for consumer labelling. Using a policy lab model will be a novel approach for ECCC and the experiment is to test whether this approach can enhance the policy outcomes in the context of a complex issue affecting a regulatory program and implicating many industries and stakeholders.
Competition Bureau Canada	Merger Intelligence	The experiment involves testing whether a created IT tool can help the Competition Bureau to leverage various sources of publicly available information to more efficiently and effectively identify anticompetitive mergers that may be avoiding antitrust scrutiny in Canada because they are not caught by the current regulatory regime for mandatory pre-merger notification.
Transport Canada (TC)	Light Sport Aircraft	This experiment involves setting up a sandbox to determine if Light Sport Aircraft, with appropriate conditions, are as reliable as other aircraft currently being used for the purpose of flight training and if the quality of training is as good, or better, than other aircraft currently used for pilot training. The experiment will also inform Transport Canada on potential additional conditions/measures that should be included in future exemptions or regulatory amendments.