Canada Among World Leaders in Cutting Red Tape

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Oct. 1, 2012) - The Honourable Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, today unveiled the Red Tape Reduction Action Plan, the Government of Canada's ambitious plan to cut red tape that will further free up business to invest in jobs and growth and cement Canada's reputation as one of the best places in the world to do business.

"Cutting red tape and making the regulatory process as pain-free as possible is one of the most important initiatives our Government can undertake to help business thrive," said Minister Clement. "In today's world of global economic uncertainty, we want to make sure we are doing everything we can to support jobs and investment."

The Government's Red Tape Reduction Action Plan is one of the most ambitious regulatory modernizations in the world today, and strengthens Canada's leading global position as a transparent and predictable place to invest.

The Action Plan introduces six systemic changes that will reduce administrative burden on business, make it easier to do business with regulators, and improve service and predictability. These government-wide changes are supported by 90 department-specific reforms-common sense solutions to business irritants in areas ranging from tax and payroll, to labour, licences and permits, transport and cross-border trade. The vast majority of these reforms will be implemented over the next three years.

"The Government's plan will make Canada a global leader in addressing and controlling red tape," said Laura Jones, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). "More importantly, elements of the plan have the potential to actually make a difference in the lives of entrepreneurs who struggle daily with government red tape."
"We heard from businesses and Canadians from across the country about what we can do to make it easier for them to deal with government," Minister Clement said. "Today's Action Plan will allow business to focus on what they do best while continuing to protect the health, safety and security of Canadians."

The Action Plan is the Government's response to the Recommendations Report of the Red Tape Reduction Commission. This Commission, chaired by the Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of State (Small Business and Tourism), was created through Canada's Economic Action Plan 2010. The Recommendations Report was received by Minister Clement in January 2012 on behalf of the Government of Canada.

For more information on the Red Tape Reduction Action Plan, please visit: www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/redtape.

IF THERE IS A DISCREPANCY BETWEEN ANY PRINTED VERSION AND THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, THE ELECTRONIC VERSION WILL PREVAIL.

TTY (Telecommunications device for the hearing impaired) - 613-957-9090

This news release is available online at: www.tbs-sct.gc.ca.

Follow us on Twitter: @TBS_Canada

BACKGROUNDER

RED TAPE REDUCTION ACTION PLAN - OVERVIEW

The Red Tape Reduction Action Plan sets out the Government's common-sense approach to cutting red tape so entrepreneurs can focus on doing business and creating jobs.

The Action Plan introduces six fundamental, system-wide reforms and 90 department-specific changes. These will address a broad range of irritants to businesses, as well as the systemic barriers that unnecessarily frustrate and burden Canadian business with additional delays, costs and bureaucracy.

The six systemic reforms are grouped under three major areas of action:

• Reducing the administrative burden on business:
  • The "One-for-One" Rule; and
  • The Small Business Lens.
• Making it easier to do business with regulators:
  • Requiring policies that clarify, up front, how regulators interpret questions about meeting regulatory requirements.
• Improving service and predictability:
  • Forward Regulatory Plans;
  • Service Standards; and
  • Annual Scorecard Report.

Specific reforms that will make doing business easier and more efficient include:

• Introducing a single window for regulatory approvals for the movement of goods under the Canada Border Service Agency;
  
  
• Harmonizing the "trusted trader" program, a fast-track cross border trade program which currently requires approval by both U.S. and Canada authorities;
  
  
• Instituting the "One Business One Number" initiative which allows companies to use a single business number from the Canada Revenue Agency to manage multiple accounts;
  
  
• Allowing entrepreneurs to delegate electronic authorizations to an intermediary of their choice, like their accountant or lawyer, to deal with the Canada Revenue Agency; and
  
  
• Introducing electronic applications to reduce wait times for the Temporary Foreign Workers Program and the International Student Program.
  
  

The Action Plan is the Government's response to the Recommendations Report of the Red Tape Reduction Commission. This Commission, chaired by the Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of State (Small Business and Tourism), was created through Canada's Economic Action Plan 2010. The Recommendations Report was received by Minister Clement in January 2012 on behalf of the Government of Canada.

Under the Plan, the Government will publicly report on its progress in cutting red tape and improving service. An Annual Scorecard, to be reviewed by an External Regulatory Advisory Committee, will track and publish the results of the Action Plan's systemic reforms. Key service standard metrics will also be published and departments will also provide businesses with a feedback mechanism for them to register a complaint.

BACKGROUNDER

RED TAPE REDUCTION ACTION PLAN - "ONE-FOR-ONE" RULE

The Red Tape Reduction Action Plan sets out what the Government is doing to cut red tape so entrepreneurs can focus on doing business.

The Action Plan describes six fundamental systemic regulatory reforms grouped under three major areas of action.

• Reducing administrative burden on business:
  • The "One-for-One" Rule; and
  • The Small Business Lens.
• Making it easier to do business with regulators:
  • Requiring policies that clarify, up front, how regulators interpret questions about meeting regulatory requirements.
• Improving service and predictability:
  • Forward Regulatory Plans;
  • Service Standards; and
  • Annual Scorecard Report.

One of these six systemic reforms is known as the "One-for-One" Rule.

Highlights:

Through the "One-for-One" Rule, the Government will reduce administrative burden in two ways:

1. When a new or amended regulation increases administrative burden on business, regulators will be required to offset-from their existing regulations -an equal amount of administrative burden cost on business.

2. It requires regulators to remove a regulation each time they introduce a new regulation that imposes new administrative burden on business.

• Regulators are required to provide offsets within two years of receiving final approval of regulatory changes that impose new administrative burden on business.
• The value of the administrative burden cost savings or cost increases to business will be made public in the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement when the regulatory change is published in the Canada Gazette.

For example, Industry Canada is reducing the red tape burden and costs to businesses through its Corporate Reporting Regulations that trims their regulatory reporting obligations. With these changes, fewer businesses in Canada would be required to provide information, with the collective savings to them estimated at $1.2 million annually.

Canada will be the first country to give such a rule the weight of legislation.

Related Information:

An Annual Scorecard Report will be published to publicly report on the implementation of systemic reforms, particularly the "One-for-One" Rule.

The first Scorecard Report is scheduled to be published in 2013.

BACKGROUNDER

RED TAPE REDUCTION ACTION PLAN - SMALL BUSINESS LENS

The Red Tape Reduction Action Plan sets out what the Government is doing to cut red tape so entrepreneurs can focus on doing business.

The Action Plan describes six fundamental systemic regulatory reforms grouped under three major areas of action.

• Reducing administrative burden on business:
  • The "One-for-One" Rule; and
  • The Small Business Lens.
• Making it easier to do business with regulators:
  • Requiring policies that clarify, up front, how regulators interpret questions about meeting regulatory requirements.
• Improving service and predictability:
  • Forward Regulatory Plans;
  • Service Standards; and
  • Annual Scorecard Report.

One of these six systemic reforms is known as the Small Business Lens.

Highlights:

• Starting immediately, the Small Business Lens requires regulators to take into account the impact that new or amended regulations have on small business.
  
  
• The Small Business Lens is triggered when a regulatory change imposes over $1 million in annual nation-wide costs, or has a disproportionate impact on a few small businesses.
  
  
• Regulators will now have to show in their Regulatory Impact Analysis Statements what analysis they followed to assess the impact on small business to demonstrate that they did everything they could to keep costs down for entrepreneurs.
  
  
• The Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement includes a 20-point checklist that is published with the proposed regulation. It describes the Government's regulatory action and its impact on the environment, health, safety, security, and social and economic well-being of Canadians. The checklist will drive efforts to minimize burden on small business, avoid bureaucratic duplication and communicate regulatory requirements in clear, plain language.
  
  
• Integrating the results of the Small Business Lens into the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement allows small business owners to judge for themselves and to comment on the Government's efforts to minimize regulatory burden.
  
  
• The Small Business Lens is also featured as a cross-cutting tool in the Canada-United States Regulatory Cooperation Council Joint Action Plan, in which Canada and the United States agreed to share approaches and tools to assess and account for the needs of small businesses when developing regulations.
  
  

A "small business" is defined as any business with fewer than 100 employees or between $30,000 and $5 million in annual gross revenues.

BACKGROUNDER

RED TAPE REDUCTION ACTION PLAN - FORWARD REGULATORY PLANS

The Red Tape Reduction Action Plan sets out what the Government is doing to cut red tape so entrepreneurs can focus on doing business.

The Action Plan describes six fundamental systemic regulatory reforms grouped under three major areas of action.

• Reducing administrative burden on business:
  • The "One-for-One" Rule; and
  • The Small Business Lens.
• Making it easier to do business with regulators:
  • Requiring policies that clarify, up front, how regulators interpret questions about meeting regulatory requirements.
• Improving service and predictability:
  • Forward Regulatory Plans;
  • Service Standards; and
  • Annual Scorecard Report.

One of these six systemic reforms is known as Forward Regulatory Plans.

Highlights:

• Starting in fall 2012, regulators will be required to publish Forward Regulatory Plans on their websites.

• Forward Regulatory Plans are lists of planned and potential new regulations or amendments that a regulator anticipates it will bring forward over a 24-month period.

• As these plans are early estimates of upcoming regulatory initiatives, they will be revised annually to reflect changing circumstances, in addition to being updated once per year.

• Posting Forward Regulatory Plans gives Canadians and businesses advance notification of upcoming regulatory initiatives allowing stakeholders more time to plan for the future.

BACKGROUNDER

RED TAPE REDUCTION ACTION PLAN - INTERPRETATION POLICIES

The Red Tape Reduction Action Plan sets out what the Government is doing to cut red tape so entrepreneurs can focus on doing business.

The Action Plan describes six fundamental systemic regulatory reforms grouped under three major areas of action.

• Reducing administrative burden on business:
  • The "One-for-One" Rule; and
  • The Small Business Lens.
• Making it easier to do business with regulators:
  • Requiring policies that clarify, up front, how regulators interpret questions about meeting regulatory requirements.
• Improving service and predictability:
  • Forward Regulatory Plans;
  • Service Standards; and
  • Annual Scorecard Report.

One of these six systemic reforms is the requirement for regulators to develop and publish interpretation policies.

Highlights:

• To help Canadians and businesses understand how regulators interpret regulations, regulators will be required to publish interpretation policies on their websites.

• These interpretation policies will also provide information on when regulators will respond to questions in writing from stakeholders about requirements to be met.

• These policies will bring transparency and predictability to the regulatory process, by providing businesses with information on how to meet their regulatory requirements.

BACKGROUNDER

RED TAPE REDUCTION ACTION PLAN - SERVICE STANDARDS

The Red Tape Reduction Action Plan sets out what the Government is doing to cut red tape so entrepreneurs can focus on doing business.

The Action Plan describes six fundamental systemic regulatory reforms grouped under three major areas of action.

• Reducing administrative burden on business:
  • The "One-for-One" Rule; and
  • The Small Business Lens.
• Making it easier to do business with regulators:
  • Requiring policies that clarify, up front, how regulators interpret questions about meeting regulatory requirements.
• Improving service and predictability:
  • Forward Regulatory Plans;
  • Service Standards; and
  • Annual Scorecard Report.

One of these systemic reforms is the requirement to establish service standards for high-volume licensing, permitting and certification processes.

Highlights:

• Regulators will be required to establish and post the following information online for their high-volume licensing, permitting and certification processes:

• service standards ;

• complaint processes; and

• performance against their published service standards.

• Establishing and posting service standards, complaint processes and performance against service standards clarifies expectations and enhances the predictability of the regulatory process for businesses.

Related Information:

Compliance with the requirement to establish service standards will be part of the Annual Scorecard Report to be published in 2013. Starting in 2014, performance against published service standards will be reported in the Scorecard.

BACKGROUNDER

RED TAPE REDUCTION ACTION PLAN - ANNUAL SCORECARD REPORT

The Red Tape Reduction Action Plan sets out what the Government is doing to cut red tape so entrepreneurs can focus on doing business.

The Action Plan describes six fundamental systemic regulatory reforms grouped under three major areas of action.

• Reducing administrative burden on business:
  • The "One-for-One" Rule; and
  • The Small Business Lens.
• Making it easier to do business with regulators:
  • Requiring policies that clarify, up front, how regulators interpret questions about meeting regulatory requirements.
• Improving service and predictability:
  • Forward Regulatory Plans;
  • Service Standards; and
  • Annual Scorecard Report.

One of these six systemic reforms is known as the Annual Scorecard Report.

Highlights:

• Starting in fall 2013, the President of the Treasury Board will publish an Annual Scorecard Report, underscoring the Government's commitment to publicly reporting on its progress in reducing red tape and improving service.

• The Scorecard will report on system-wide changes to the regulatory system, particularly on the implementation of the "One-for-One" Rule, Service Standards and the Small Business Lens.

• The Scorecard will also be reviewed by an External Regulatory Advisory Committee.

• The Scorecard and the Advisory Committee's view on the Government's progress will also be provided to the Auditor General annually.