Legal compliance

As a leader in our field, SFU must be committed to meeting its obligations under the more than 200 pieces of federal, provincial and municipal legislation which apply to it.

Impacts of non-compliance can be financial, reputational and operational – potentially impacting our ability to conduct core teaching, learning, and research activities.  As unit-level departments carry out the operations of the university, they are primarily responsible for SFU’s compliance obligations.

To support SFU in fulfilling these obligations, the Office of the General Counsel has launched an initiative that provides continuing information resources relating to the legislation that applies to SFU and establishes a new reporting process that enables SFU to benchmark compliance on a regular basis, using software.

A Legal Compliance Committee (LCC) provides leadership and support to the university in this initiative, and subject matter experts (SMEs) at the unit level have been selected to participate in this initiative based on their leadership and depth of knowledge at the unit level, and for their commitment to operational excellence. The work of the LCC and SMEs in this initiative helps to standardize reporting and create a culture of operational accountability across the university.