Well, actually, I'll take one step back. There are a number of regulatory modernization exercises happening, both at the federal level and at various provincial levels of government. They engage with the industry, and we collect a list of concerns and take time to try to improve and modernize over months or sometimes years.
We have a sort of laundry list of the things manufacturers are faced with, such as local permitting challenges in trying to expand a facility in the Lower Mainland. There has been some legislation passed with limited consultation around child labour in supply chains that is creating a tremendous cost in reporting burdens for small and medium-sized manufacturers. There is a range of these things that layer on and impose costs. What we've generally encouraged, when we talk about these issues, is to step back from the individual problems and regulations, because if we stay focused only on trying to fix some of the challenging ones, there's a limited bandwidth, of course, of regulators and parliamentarians to look at these and try to adjust them. In the time you fix them, you may introduce another half-dozen layered on top.
Our focus really has been to look at the process and the way governments regulate: how we do cost-benefit analysis, how we consult and how we ensure that the net regulatory burden is lowered or managed and is not continually increasing. Also, what are other things that we can do to create systemic change in how regulators do their business?
Here is a fairly straightforward example in terms of a policy recommendation we've been advocating. Many regulators at the federal level do not have economic mandates attached to their role at all. When we point out that the path they're taking is not one that is advantageous to Canadian firms at home or to trying to compete abroad, they will say, quite transparently, “Well, that's not our mandate. That's not our job.” There are examples where you can give competitiveness mandates alongside health and safety mandates, as well as the appropriate guidance to help them work with regulated communities and other government departments to figure out the best approach to a specific policy problem. How can we do it in a way that advantages and does not disadvantage Canadian firms when they're competing?
