Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Ministers, for taking time out of your very busy schedules to be here and to give us the outline and update that you have.
I'd like to focus in on small business because that was may background for 25 years. I was a business owner in the construction industry prior to coming to Ottawa. I frequently hold business round tables and economic round tables leading into our budgets, and I hear exactly what Minister Bernier has articulated in terms of red tape.
Another area of concern that I hear frequently is the duplication that adds cost to running a small business. In the case of my part of the country, which is southwest Ontario, there are provincial—I would call them—policies that require certain things in the development industry as well as in the construction industry, and they are duplicated at the federal level in many departments.
Is your department working with provinces and territories, maybe not working with but at least making sure that where there is duplication there is a hard look to see whether it is absolutely necessary?
I'll give you an example. A raw piece of land that is zoned properly for building often requires some environmental studies, heritage studies, at the provincial level. These are duplicated at the federal level. When you apply at the federal level, they tell you, “We will not accept the report that you gave to the provincial government. Start all over again. Do it all over again.” Hence, taking a piece of property that is properly zoned for an industrial development may take as many as five years to bring on stream.
I cite that as a real-life example and to ask you to please comment. There's not only the need for a great reduction and simplification of red tape and the processing, but also of these duplication items.
Minister Bernier.