Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you on behalf of Environment Canada about Bill C-21, the red tape reduction act.
My name is Mike Beale. I'm the assistant deputy minister for environmental stewardship at Environment Canada. I'm here today with Stewart Lindale, who is the director of regulatory innovation and management systems at Environment Canada. Stewart oversees implementation of the one-for-one rule for the department.
Environment Canada administers over a dozen acts and more than 70 regulations that support the department's goal to provide Canadians with a clean, safe and sustainable environment.
The department has an active regulatory agenda. Our forward regulatory plan contains 42 initiatives that we anticipate advancing over the next two years. Since the one-for-one rule was introduced in April 2012, we have completed approximately 33 regulations or regulatory amendments.
As one of the government's most active regulatory departments, Environment Canada has, for many years, emphasized the importance of continual improvement in pursuit of regulatory excellence, and places high importance on strengthening the capacity of its people and its regulatory systems.
Before amending an existing regulation or designing a new one, we seek to ensure that it will be the right tool to achieve the risk management objective. When designing a regulation, we strive to ask only for information that is needed and only as often as required, maximize the use of online reporting, and actively engage regulatees in discussing ways to reduce administrative burden without compromising the attainment of environmental objectives.
To date, the one-for-one rule has been triggered for eleven Environment Canada regulatory initiatives, three of which added burden, and eight of which were regulatory amendments that reduced administrative burden without compromising environmental protection. In total, we have attained a net reduction in administrative burden of approximately $1.6 million over the past two years.
Environment Canada has actively engaged with the Treasury Board Secretariat in the implementation of the government's regulatory reform agenda, and going forward, we will continue to strive to minimize burden on Canadian business while fulfilling our environmental protection mandate.
Thank you.
I would be pleased to answer any questions.