Panel Reports On Canadian Red Tape Reduction

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

24 January 2012

Canada's Red Tape Reduction Commission has released its Recommendations Report, which examined ways to spur job creation and economic growth through the elimination of unnecessary red tape.

The Commission was created through Canada’s Economic Action Plan in January 2011, and was chaired by Maxime Bernier, Minister of State (Small Business and Tourism). It was charged with to identifying "irritants" to business that have clear detrimental effects on growth, competitiveness and innovation. The report was presented to Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for FedNor on January 18, 2012.

The Commission carried out online and in-person consultations with businesses and business groups across Canada, and identified 2,300 specific irritants about how regulations cause unnecessary cost and frustration. It then compiled 90 specific recommendations involving 18 government departments and agencies, and proposes that the government make systemic changes to the way it regulates businesses, while ensuring that the environment and the health and safety of Canadians are not compromised.

Commenting, Clement said that the government is moving forward with the Commission’s recommendation to implement a “One-for-One” Rule to control administrative burden on business. This new rule will mean that regulators will be required to remove at least one regulation each time they introduce a new one that imposes administrative burden on business. In addition, regulatory changes that increase administrative burden on business need to be offset with equal administrative burden reductions.

The Commission arranged its other main recommendations into five categories. They are as follows:

• The federal government must cut the administrative burden that businesses have to deal with. This can be done by: cutting the burden of regulatory requirements on businesses; cutting the information demands on businesses; and enhancing the use of electronic services to reduce compliance costs.
• The federal government must cut the hidden burden created when individual businesses have to contend with the demands of many different federal regulators. This should be done by: getting the federal regulatory house in order and increasing the use of electronic “single windows” for information on regulatory requirements. This could set the stage for a “Tell Us Once” policy to ensure that individual departments do not ask the same business for the same information multiple times.
• The federal government must foster a true service culture among staff who have regulatory roles by: setting and being accountable for meeting service standards; building a culture of service excellence and professionalism; “connecting the dots” for small businesses that must deal with many regulators; and using plain language and providing clear, definitive interpretations.
• The federal government must improve how it designs its regulatory responses to policy issues and governs the overall regulatory regime by: increasing predictability and transparency by publishing regulatory plans; improving the assessment of risk, the analysis of costs and benefits, and the measurement and evaluation of the performance of regulatory programs; and gaining a better understanding of the impact of regulations on small businesses.
• The government should set up an independent body to review and report on progress made to reduce red tape and on the overall volume of regulatory programs. It could therefore evaluate how the situation is evolving. In addition, the Commission states that the government must devise means of encouraging senior federal public servants to effectively manage the government’s efforts to reduce red tape on both the stock of existing regulations and flow of new and amended regulations.

“The Commission believes cutting red tape is critical. And this Government agrees. Through these cutting red tape initiatives, the Government hopes to allow businesses to focus on what they do best: sustaining our economic recovery by creating jobs and generating wealth in communities across Canada,” Clement added.

The government will develop an action plan responding to the other recommendations in the coming months.

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