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SMART REGULATION
A Regulatory Strategy for Canada
PREFACE
The External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation was
established in May 2003 to provide an external perspective and
expert advice on how the federal government needs to redesign its
regulatory approach for Canada in the 21st century. A number of
factors are increasing the rate of change in the world —
global markets and the greater mobility of people and skills,
rapid scientific and technological advancements, cross-boundary
health and environmental risks, and the growing empowerment of
citizens. It is against this backdrop that the Committee examined
areas where the federal government needs to improve, expand or
possibly redesign its regulatory approach.
The Committee comprises 10 members with extensive experience
and diverse backgrounds. Its terms of reference were to:
- develop a regulatory strategy designed for the 21st century,
supporting Canada as a sovereign trading nation that offers a
high quality of life for its citizens;
- identify sectors and areas requiring regulatory reform in
order to give Canada a strategic advantage; and
- review and provide an external perspective on specific issues
identified by departments and stakeholders.
The Committee was asked to fulfill its mandate within 12 to 15
months. Given this timeline and limited resources, the Committee
decided to focus its work on certain areas over others. For
example, it did not address key market framework legislation or
areas where an existing review process was already under way,
such as the various reviews of securities regulation and the
study of cost recovery measures by the Treasury Board
Secretariat. The Committee decided not to deal with regulation
related to climate change because, at the time the Committee was
created, this issue was already the subject of extensive
discussions among the federal government, the provinces and
territories, the private sector and other stakeholders.
The Committee did not conduct a detailed study of the
regulatory burden on business, although it hopes that its
recommendations will help in this regard. The Committee
acknowledges the recent work of provinces and territories to
reduce the burden on small and medium-sized enterprises. It also
notes the recent Federal Budget commitment to establish a joint
working group on paperwork burden reduction, which will be
co-chaired by Industry Canada and an association representing
small businesses.
The Committee believes that the issues identified in this
report and many of its recommendations are relevant for most
sectors of the economy. It recognizes that much of its analysis
and therefore many of the examples in this document are related
to what the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
defines as “social regulation,” in other words,
health, safety, environmental and other areas of protective
regulation. These are the types of regulations that are expanding
the most rapidly and have generated the most criticism and the
greatest expectations from citizens. In addition, given the fast
pace of developments in the fields of science and technology,
social regulation is where many of the regulatory challenges of
the future will occur. Considering the potential economic
opportunities and social benefits involved, the Committee felt
that it would therefore be opportune to focus on social
regulation.
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