The National Advisory Panel on Marine Protected Area (MPA) Protection Standards was launched by the the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to gather perspectives and offer recommendations on categories and associated protection standards for federal MPAs. The Panel used the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidance as a baseline to provide its recommendations grouped into the following categories: (1) Collaborative planning and design, (2) Crown-Indigenous relations, (3) Protection standards, and (4) marine spatial planning.