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Delegation of Statutory Inspection and Certification

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Transport Canada has recently signed a number of formal agreements covering the delegation of statutory inspection and certification functions under the Canada Shipping Act to specific ship classification societies. These agreements are applicable to vessels in class with one of these recognized societies and cover both existing Canadian-registered vessels, new vessels under construction and vessels being transferred to Canadian registry. These delegation agreements encompass most of the surveys and certification required under the Canada Shipping Act and its regulations, as well as under the international Conventions to which Canada is signatory. Where existing regulations under the Canada Shipping Act refer to specific ship classification societies being authorized to carry out certain statutory functions that are now addressed in these delegation agreements, it is intended that these regulations will be revoked or amended in future to acknowledge the authorizations granted under these formal agreements. 

Formal agreements covering the delegation of statutory inspection and certification functions were signed with: 

• Lloyd's Register of Shipping on December 4, 2000;  
• American Bureau of Shipping on March 23, 2001; 
• Germanischer Lloyd on September 10, 2001. 
• Det Norske Veritas on April 22, 2002; and
• Bureau Veritas on March 31, 2003.

The related implementation policy can be viewed on the Marine Safety website at Delegated Statutory Inspection Programme.

These master delegation agreements are considered to be complementary to the delegation agreements covering certification for the International Safety Management (ISM) Code under the Safety Management Regulations signed in July 1999 with five ship classification societies: 

• Lloyd's Register of Shipping 
• The American Bureau of Shipping 
• Det Norske Veritas 
• Germanischer Lloyd; and 
• Bureau Veritas. 

All five ship classification societies are authorized to issue the certification required under the Safety Management Regulations for Canadian-registered ships and companies. 

The related implementation policy can be viewed on the Marine Safety website at:

Delegation of Certification Under the Safety Management Regulations.