Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to speak this evening about the government plans to amend the Red Tape Reduction Act. The Red Tape Reduction Act establishes a one-for-one rule to control the amount of administrative burden that is imposed on business through Governmen

Finance committee  The rule in the way that it works now is that anytime a federal regulation comes in within a portfolio.... So, if, for example, the Minister of Health brings in a new regulation within the health portfolio, she must remove administrative burden in an equal amount as well as the t

Finance committee  Yes, that's right. If the change in the U.S. federal regulation had administrative cost savings for Canadian businesses, that could count in her bank of offsets.

Finance committee  No. The objective behind this is to incite regulatory co-operation. Federal departments have indicated that in its present form the one-for-one rule does not always encourage them to work with their counterparts in other jurisdictions to find ways to align their regulatory framew

Finance committee  No. It's only in the case of a reduction. The rule would not kick in in the case of an increase of administrative burden in the U.S. I would point out that the U.S. has just instituted a two-for-one, so it's unlikely that we'll see any increases in burden that would impact Canadi

Finance committee  Yes. She would be able to put that in her bank. That's exactly a good analogy and one that we use often. She would put that credit in her bank so that if she did bring forward a regulation that increased administrative burden, she would be able to use that amount from her bank as

Finance committee  The Canadian regulators will still always have to pay very close attention to any increase in administrative burden because of the one-for-one rule in general. They can't just increase the burden without a commensurate amount being removed—

Finance committee  But it's removed on Canadian business. If it's only removed on American business, this rule will not apply. The impact has to be quantified and felt here in Canada. I would also point out, because I'm not sure that I was clear enough in my statement, that it only applies where w

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  That's right.

Finance committee  I want to make sure I understand the question. You're wondering how many departments have their 24 months that still haven't run out? I actually don't have the specifics on that, on how many might be left. We publish an annual report to Parliament on the cost in and cost out und

Finance committee  I'm sorry, I'm just going to find my—

Finance committee  The purpose of that clause is to amend the English version of the act to clarify that the reference to administrative burden in section 5 of the act relates to administrative burden that is imposed by Canadian federal regulations, not by American regulation, for example.

Finance committee  As long as they can quantify administrative burden reductions for Canadian business, yes, they can put it in their bank account, so to speak.

Finance committee  The reason for including the provinces is because the Canadian Free Trade Agreement established a regulatory reconciliation and co-operation table. There are examples on which we are actively working right now to establish our first work plan under this table. There may be exampl