Merci.
Before answering your question, I want to correct myself. In my introductory remarks I said that the spending coming from the tourism industry was $8.1 billion. It's more than $81.9 billion. That's the money that is spent in the tourism industry in a year. So it is not $8.1 billion, but $81.9 billion a year of spending in the tourism industry. I'm sorry about that.
Concerning your question, you're absolutely right. It is why we have this website called BizPal. It's very simple, and I encourage the members to google “BizPal”. You'll see all the regulations that a business person has to comply with when they want to start a business. If you are in the food industry or restoration, or things like that, you have all the industries. If you're living in London, Ontario, you'll be able to know all the regulations that apply to you as a person who wants to start a new business—at the municipal level, at the provincial level, and at the federal level. Sometimes there are a lot of regulations.
When we did our consultation when I was chairing the Red Tape Reduction Commission, business people told us, “It is great if you reduce red tape at the federal level, but why not speak with your counterparts at the provincial level because there are a lot of regulations there also?” My answer was very simple. We don't have jurisdiction over the provinces, but I assured business people and Canadians that we would be in contact with our provincial counterparts to do the same thing.
I know that in B.C. they are making a lot of effort to reduce the red tape that they impose on their small businesses. I hope some provinces will take our report and try to implement the same kind of report at the provincial level.
But you are absolutely right. As you know, time is money. The less time a business person spends working for free for government, he will have more time to work for himself and create wealth and jobs in this country. Our goal is to do our best at the federal level, but at the same time it's to be sure that the provinces are able to do the same. We need the willingness at the political level in each province. I'm pleased to see what's happening B.C., and I hope the other provinces will follow our lead.