Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the constituents of Surrey Central, once during question period I asked the government when it would begin a serious review of Canada's regulatory system with an eye toward reducing the red tape. The hon. government House leader chose to respond but he failed to give an answer to my question.
After I raised the issue of regulatory reform in the House and had round tables with stakeholders in the industry, the Liberals listened to me, and in September's throne speech promised to reduce the administrative burden, also called red tape, on businesses. The industry minister is on record promising regulatory reforms some time in the year 2010. It is an unacceptable long term calendar.
The External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation is now touted as the fulfilment of this promise. It has a chair, Mr. Hugh MacDairmid, and a $4 million two year budget. Who knows, maybe in another few days it may even have some committee members. However will it reduce the regulatory red tape in Canada? That is my key question.
According to the committee's mandate, as stated in the press release of the Prime Minister's Office and in the executive director's press release, it will not. The committee will “provide an external perspective and expert advice to the Government of Canada on regulatory issues spanning economic and social policy objectives”.
The government should reconsider its regulatory approach and it must clearly act in a reduction in red tape rather than some hanky-panky stuff. Canada's regulatory system is slow, costly, overlaps and is inefficient. The red tape imposed by government is strangling productivity and hurting economic growth in Canada.
The provinces have already reached this conclusion. We know the province of Ontario is light years ahead of the federal government in regulatory reforms. Provinces like Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and even some territories have also done a remarkable job in their work toward regulatory reforms.
Canada has hundreds of thousands of regulations with more being added every day; 16 a day on average. The cost to businesses and to Canadians is over $100 billion.
It is time for the government to follow the lead of the provinces and act to review the many thousands of existing overlapping, ill-considered and outdated regulations.
In the last quarter century, Canadians have witnessed unprecedented growth in red tape. Therefore the government needs to move from red tape to smart tape and from smart tape to smart government. All of Canada will benefit from this exercise, so I demand an answer to my question. When will regulatory reform take place in Canada?