Easily a dozen people in our businesses are assigned to paperwork. In our legal department alone, at least two or three of our five full-time lawyers are assigned to corporate compliance with the regulations of the various levels of government, which often include the federal government. Given the nature of our operations, we frequently interact with the federal government through Crown corporations such as the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Business Development Bank of Canada and, more generally, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
We also hire many people as consultants, although they aren't direct employees of our businesses. They may include lawyers, cost consultants and engineers. In short, there's a whole range.
It would be complicated to calculate the exact cost to hire all the people who work directly in our businesses and all the consultants we have to engage on a daily basis, but we spend several million dollars a year to meet the federal government's compliance requirements associated with very simple matters that are becoming extremely complicated for no reason.