For too long, Canadian businesses have been strapped with unnecessary administrative burdens, confusing regulations and have found little help navigating through the confusing red tape. These burdens have a direct impact on business’ ability to focus on what they do best — creating employment and growing their business to stimulate the economy. Given that this red tape costs the Canadian economy $31 billion a year, we believe streamlining regulatory processes is one of the best ways to help our economy thrive. That’s why last October the Red Tape Reduction Action Plan was launched.
This plan has implemented changes to the food and drug regulations, allowing pharmacy technicians to transfer prescriptions to another pharmacy, saving $8.7 million a year. The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) announced changes to their business enquiries phone service where call agents now must provide an agent ID number when greeting clients which establishes a friendly relationship, a feedback loop, and a sense of accountability. In fact, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business gave the Golden Scissors Award to the honourable Gail Shea, minister of national revenue for these and other changes at the CRA. Our government also announced that corporate reporting burdens for businesses with revenues between $10- and $200-million will be reduced, benefiting 32,000 businesses and generating $1.2 million in administrative savings.
Our plan is helping to alleviate the unnecessary and exhaustive paperwork and regulations, and these recent red tape reductions are among some 90 department-specific reforms being rolled out over the next three years. I look forward to further red tape cutting measures that will help businesses thrive in our Canadian economy and around the globe.
– Colin Mayes
