Industry committee  I'll just add that pilot projects in the federal government sometimes tend to go on and on, and that's the other thing. You need to do it for a two- or three-year period, and assess it and make a determination to continue it or cut it off. Unfortunately, that often doesn't happen in government, but we're big promoters of trying those things.

Industry committee  Exactly, the rural and northern immigration pilot.

Industry committee  The first thought that comes into my mind is to allow business owners to actually email CRA; it's as simple as that. There are things like that. You still have to have a fax machine to contact the CRA; it's pretty antiquated. It's even simple things that would allow businesses to be able to communicate, and then if you're doing electronic communication, you don't have to wait 10 business days to get a response.

Industry committee  I was going to say that I think CRA is probably the best department. To be fair, they are trying new things. They've created My Business Account, an online portal for businesses to use. We're pushing them more and more to use that because it allows businesses to communicate electronically with government through that means.

Industry committee  Yes it is, except to actually get into the system you used to have to go through quite a lengthy process. You had to actually get the password to get into the system, so there was that hurdle to get over. They've recently changed that to make it a little easier so they can email you a password to go through.

Industry committee  Correct, so it's about reducing the burden, so you don't have to file as often. With the record of employment, they still create eight million, I believe. The number is around eight million a year, of which maybe one million are used. So every year, every time you separate from an employee, you have to fill out these forms that are still on paper.

Industry committee  Yes. I mean, that's part of it, but I can tell you that one of the most widely cheered changes that CRA made was changing thresholds on GST and payroll taxes, meaning that you don't have to file as often. Depending on how big your payroll is—

Industry committee  You pay GST annually between $30,000 and $50,000.

Industry committee  Correct, and by changing those thresholds, that meant a whole bunch of people didn't have to pay as often during a year, so that's reduced—

Industry committee  GST was changed in about 2007-2008. I don't think it's been changed since. Payroll tax was changed around 2013 or 2014, somewhere in there. But they hadn't been changed for decades before that. That counted more—

Industry committee  In particular, it's the tax on split income changes that has had the biggest impact in terms of the regulatory burden. There are now two levels of tests that you have to go through to prove whether a family member is working in your business. There's now a bright-line test that you have to go through first.

Industry committee  There's always that potential, for sure. I think our bigger fear is whether our members even know what type of paperwork is going to be required. We're trying to work with CRA right now to get that information out as broadly as possible. I don't think we're really going to know until we're about two years down the road, once audits of those businesses start to happen and we see whether or not the materials they're producing are being used by CRA as legitimate enough.

Industry committee  Yes, absolutely. That's one of the reasons the Income Tax Act is currently not included as one of the areas that comes under the one-for-one rule or is not included as part of the count. Both these measures, as far as I understand, are under the Income Tax Act more than anything else.

Industry committee  That's correct.

Industry committee  Thanks. I'll refer you to the slides that are in front of you. Slide 3 shows that the smallest businesses actually pay the largest per-employee cost of regulation. From a small business perspective, the cost of regulation is regressive and puts the smallest businesses at the biggest disadvantage because they don't benefit from the economies of scale that larger businesses would.