Madam Speaker, earlier this spring, I rose in the House to highlight how small businesses are struggling under the weight of red tape, particularly through, at that time, the customs programs at CBSA that were supposed to help businesses but have instead caused confusion, delay and unnecessary costs.
In 2024, the average small business owner lost the equivalent of 32 business days, an entire month of productivity, just dealing with red tape. The cost of regulation across all three levels of government now stands at $51.5 billion. Over one-third of that, almost $18 billion, is wasted on pure red tape. Altogether, businesses spent 768 million hours filling out forms, waiting on approvals and complying with overlapping rules. That is the equivalent of nearly 394,000 full-time jobs tied up in paperwork instead of producing the goods and services Canadians want to see from Canadian businesses.
For example, last week I met with B.C. Food and Beverage and Bimbo Canada, and I heard first-hand how much they are spending on the government's plastics registry alone. Business owners are required to report, every year, on the quantity and types of plastics they produce or use, creating a heavy administrative burden.
It is not just one regulation that makes this difficult; it is the cumulative effect of three levels of government, all demanding time and money from our businesses. This red tape takes time away from running the business, hiring workers and growing our economy. At the same time, our country faces one of the lowest rates of productivity growth in the OECD. Projections show Canada will see the weakest GDP per capita growth among advanced economies in the years ahead.
Now, the solutions are not easy, but this month, the President of the Treasury Board outlined that the Government of Canada would start a red tape review, so in some respects, the government does agree with what I am saying here today.
Tonight, on behalf of the 46.5% of private sector workers in Canada and on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of small businesses, what is the government going to do? What can it signal to Canadians that it is going to do to help businesses, not in a government program but by reducing the overall weight of government on small businesses in our country?
I look forward to the government's response.