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Business groups applauded the move as a way to avoid regulations that needlessly stifle investment or slow infrastructure developments. But the Chamber report found that those efforts have “languished” and said Ottawa is unlikely to follow through until well after the general election, if at all.

“We’re disappointed it’s not going to be implemented anytime before 2020,” Greer said in an interview.

In his report, Greer gave the Liberals an overall B-grade, with positive marks in the area of “modernization of regulatory frameworks” and in its establishment of various “working groups.” He gave Ottawa an F-grade on its promise to improve consultations between industry and regulators, writing that there is “evidence that regulators will continue to use consultation as an exercise to justify their preferred regulatory options rather than trying to improve them.”

If you don’t fix the underlying cause of the symptoms, you’ll never address the real problem in terms of how regulations are crafted

As an example, Greer cited Bill C-69, the contentious environmental assessment bill that passed into legislation in the late spring, in which regulators consulted heavily with industry but ultimately ignored many of their requests.

Observers say the absence of a meaningful regulatory review has already weakened Canadian competitiveness compared with other countries, as foreign governments become increasingly clever in crafting administrative rules that incentivize business investment.

“No government is doing this well, but Canada seems to be behind the pack,” said Craig Alexander, chief economist at Deloitte Canada, in an interview Monday.