Village Gamer

The Federal Red Tape Reduction Commission released its final report today during the Canadian Federation of Independent Business‘ (CFIB’s) third annual Red Tape Awareness Week™. The report includes a recommendation to task the Auditor General of Canada with reviewing and reporting on the Government’s progress in reducing red tape.

“Adding red tape oversight to the mandate of the Auditor General is a really innovative idea. If the federal government moves on this it will show it is very, very serious about eliminating dumb and ineffective rules and improving government customer service,” said Catherine Swift, CFIB president and member of the Federal Red Tape Reduction Commission.

The Commission’s report includes a wide range of other recommendations to reduce and control red tape including: implementing “one-for-one” legislation that eliminates one existing regulation and its associated costs for every new regulation introduced; requiring government departments to improve customer service; reviewing government publications to make sure they are using plain language; reporting regulatory requirements; and making part of senior public servants’ bonuses conditional on successfully implementing the “one-for-one” rule.

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“These recommendations are common sense—they will save Canada’s job creators time and money, while not costing taxpayers. It’s the ultimate stimulus package,” said Laura Jones, CFIB senior vice-president, Research and Economics. CFIB estimates that regulation costs Canadian businesses over $30 billion a year, with about 25 per cent of that cost ($7.5 billion) being unnecessary red tape.

The Commission was announced by Prime Minister Harper on January 14, 2011, during CFIB’s second annual Red Tape Awareness Week™, where he called red tape “a silent killer of jobs.”  The mandate of the Commission is to identify red tape irritants and recommend long-term solutions to control red tape.