Bill C-682 (Historical)

Creation of Small Business Impact Assessment Act

An Act to amend the Department of Industry Act (small businesses)

This bill was last introduced in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session, which ended in August 2015.

Sponsor

Elizabeth May  Green

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of May 28, 2015
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.

This enactment amends the Department of Industry Act to establish a mandatory review of the potential impact on small businesses in Canada of any proposed government bill or regulation that is designated by the Minister of Industry on the basis of certain considerations.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Creation of Small Business Impact Assessment ActRoutine Proceedings

May 28th, 2015 / 10 a.m.
See context

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-682, An Act to amend the Department of Industry Act (small businesses).

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour today, along with my colleague from Thunder Bay—Superior North, to present for the consideration of the House a bill to, for the first time, create a system of orderly consideration of the impact on small businesses of legislation, regulations, and policy.

This is loosely based on something I first heard about from colleagues in the Green Party in the European Parliament, where they have what they call “think small first”, a lens that looks at the policies being undertaken by the European Parliament to see what impact, unintended, there might be on small businesses.

This act would require the Minister of Industry to consider whether measures require that analysis. It is essentially similar to an environmental impact statement, only this would be a small business impact statement so that small and medium-sized enterprises would not inadvertently have further hurdles put in their way through unintended consequences of government policy.

I hope that this bill will receive support at first reading and proceed to second reading and that it will eventually become the law of Canada.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)