That would be very much appreciated, Ms. Furlong. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, one doesn't have to look deeply into recent headlines to see that Canada's economic conditions are declining and consequently eroding the prosperity and living standards of Canadians.
Between 2009 and 2018, the number of regulations in Canada grew from 66,000 to 72,000. These regulations restrict business activity, impose costs on firms and reduce economic productivity.
According to a recent red tape study published by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the cost of regulation from all three levels of government to Canadian businesses totalled $38.8 billion in 2020, for a total of 731 million hours, the equivalent of nearly 375,000 full-time jobs.
If we apply a $16.65 per hour cost—the federal minimum wage in Canada for 2023—$12.2 billion annually is lost to regulatory compliance, and, as our witnesses here today know, Canada's smallest businesses bear a disproportionately high burden of the cost, paying up to five times more for regulatory compliance per employee than larger businesses. The smallest businesses pay $7,223 per employee annually to comply with government regulation, while larger businesses pay a much lower $1,237 per employee for regulatory compliance. Those are certainly not small numbers, Mr. Chair.
Monsieur Girard, although federal departments and agencies are meant to annually report the regulatory burden they impose on Canadians, this is not legislated and is extremely difficult to access. Why do you think the government, unlike many of its other provincial counterparts, is trying to hide this information from Canadians?