A Risk Sciences International Case Study
Safety-Kx 2025: Advancing Risk-Based Regulatory Decision-Making
Client: Canadian federal, provincial, territorial and municipal safety regulatory authorities
Listing of the client in no way affirms the client's support, sponsorship, or validation in any form of Risk Sciences International or the RSI staff member(s) who conducted this project during their stay with RSI or prior to joining the company. This case study is displayed for informative purposes only to demonstrate the capacity of RSI staff members. This case study reveals no proprietary information or information deemed sensitive.
Safety Authorities Knowledge Exchange 2025: Advancing Risk-Based Regulatory Decision-Making
Risk Sciences International designed and facilitated a structured knowledge exchange to help Canadian public safety regulators share practical experience, identify common challenges, and strengthen risk-informed regulatory decision-making. The initiative focused on organizations responsible for areas such as risk assessment, compliance, enforcement, inspections, regulatory policy, and safety-system oversight. Seven regulators participated, from three provinces.
The work began by gathering and synthesizing participants’ operational concerns into a set of common themes for peer discussion. Eight meta-concerns were developed, covering risk tolerability, risk-ranking methodologies, inspection targeting, data gaps, system-level modelling, emerging and low-probability/high-consequence risks, risk communication, and risks arising from illicit or unskilled activity.
A ten-week exchange process was structured around consideration of participant-defined concerns, peer preparation, two facilitated virtual plenary sessions, and subsequent synthesis of findings. The model was designed to move beyond presentation-based learning by enabling regulators facing comparable challenges to exchange tested approaches, discuss limitations, and identify potentially transferable practices. Confidentiality provisions supported candid discussion among participating authorities.
The first exchange generated detailed discussion on methods for establishing transparent risk-tolerability frameworks, quantifying and comparing risks, improving risk-based inspection targeting, expanding the use of external data, developing system-level analytical capabilities, and detecting emerging and anomalous risks before they result in harm, and transparency and stakeholder communication. In Exchange Two participants shared practical solutions that they were working towards, including methods for quantifying and ranking risk levels related to risk tolerability and evaluating inspection effectiveness, concern for reputation risk, integrating public and stakeholder concerns, and incorporating multiple mandates, as well as both qualitative and quantitative data in decisions..
The process concluded with focused questions and priorities intended to support further peer advice and practical next steps.
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