Aaron Lynett/National Post
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says it’s time to tear into the red tape that tethers Canadian businesses to government bureaucracies, imposing unnecessary regulatory requirements and sapping entrepreneurs of time and money.
In announcing a new commission to find ways to reduce the paper burden, Mr. Harper said no federal department will be spared from scrutiny.
“For all kinds of reasons, red tape has multiplied over the years, but most dangerously, simply because of an attitude in some circles that government knows best,” he said, speaking on the site of a Toronto printing company.
The cost of compliance with all three levels of government for Canadian businesses is estimated to be as high as $30-billion a year.
The brunt of that is borne by small and medium-sized outfits, who increasingly must turn to lawyers, accountants and consultants to fulfill the requirements, Mr. Harper said. And those costs are ultimately passed on to Canadian consumers.
“It is a hidden tax and a silent killer of jobs.”
The work of the Red Tape Reduction Commission, to be chaired by Rob Moore, minister of state for small business and tourism, will begin right away, with the first public consultation scheduled for next week in Kamloops, B.C.
Its mandate: “To identify irritants to business stemming from federal regulatory requirements,” and proposed alternatives.
Unlike other attempts to reform the country’s regulatory regime, this initiative promises permanent changes, said Catherine Swift, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and a member of the commission.
The CFIB’s research shows that Canadian businesses currently shell out $30-billion annually in compliance costs, and that 25% of entrepreneurs would have reconsidered going into business in the first place had they known the time and money required to comply with red tape.
The group’s members identify the reduction of red tape as their second highest priority, topped narrowly by the tax burden, Ms. Swift said.
“The proliferation of unnecessary red tape and onerous regulatory requirements has reached a fever pitch in Canada.”
She identified some of the typical culprits that most aggravate Canadian entrepreneurs: monthly forms, when quarterly or annually would be sufficient, filing the same information to various levels of government, or obsolete regulations still in effect.
In 2007, for example, the Canada Revenue Agency identified more than 8,000 non-essential tax forms and filings, Mr. Harper noted.
But the problem goes beyond the government form, extending to the bureaucratic culture itself, Ms. Swift said.
“Often, it’s uninformed, incompetent, rude, or unresponsive bureaucrats who really don’t seem to have any standards of providing decent, courteous, timely service to taxpayers.”
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http://www.financialpost.com/news/Harpe ... z1AxgSSTfSAlthough I don't hold out much hope that a government bureaucracy has any real ability to regulate itself and essentially put itself on a proverbial diet, I would like to see some significant progress made. One would hope if they have the political will for a 6 billion dollar corporate tax cut, then they might have a similar will to help small business.
CKA Uber 
