Red Tape Reduction Commission

Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched the Red Tape Reduction Commission (RTRC) in January 2011. The Prime Minister asked the RTRC to look at ways to give the conditions for doing business and implement common-sense solutions to the unnecessarily frustrating and burdensome barriers identified by Canadian businesses.

To meet this challenge, the RTRC carried out an extensive set of consultations with businesses and business groups across Canada. The RTRC’s What Was Heard Report, published in September 2011, summarizes the feedback received through these consultations.

The RTRC issued its Recommendations Report to the Government on January 18, 2012. This report provides specific advice to departments and agencies about reducing unnecessary business burdens on a lasting basis, without compromising the environment or the health and safety of Canadians.

On October 1, 2012, the Government of Canada released the Red Tape Reduction Action Plan report. The action plan introduces six fundamental, system-wide reforms and 90 department-specific changes. The six systemic reforms are grouped under three major areas of action:

  • Reducing the administrative burden on business:
    • The “One-for-One” Rule; and
    • The Small Business Lens.
  • Making it easier to do business with regulators:
    • Requiring policies that clarify, up front, how regulators interpret questions about meeting regulatory requirements.
  • Improving service and predictability:

As part of this work, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) develops forward regulatory plans, up-to-date forms and guidance material for licensees, enabling them to access all the information needed to submit their Annual Compliance Reports; the CNSC will also implement an online system (ACR on-line), to promote timeliness, improve predictability and address capacity issues for small businesses. This project will help reduce administrative efforts for more than 2,700 companies currently licensed by the CNSC to use nuclear substances and prescribed equipment in medical, industrial, research and academic applications.