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In this context, it’s reassuring that C-21 received near unanimous support, with some opposition critics arguing that it doesn’t go far enough. While the one-for-one rule does not explicitly reduce the burden of red tape, it has gone beyond just capping new regulatory costs. In 2012-13, it saved small businesses 98,000 hours and $20 million.

Two other reforms announced in 2012 as part of the federal Red Tape Action Plan are important to make government’s hidden tax more visible. The government recently published a 36-department inventory of 129,860 regulatory requirements that will be tracked annually. This inventory will allow for an overall assessment of whether regulatory activity is increasing or decreasing in the same way we can currently track whether government spending and taxes are increasing or decreasing.

The other important reform is that each department is now required to publish and track performance against service standards. For example, a department could publish a standard of a 15 day turn-around time for a permit, the goal of meeting that standard 90 per cent of the time and results against that goal. Government departments don’t have the same strong incentive to keep service high that businesses have because they are not subject to the discipline of competition. Publishing service expectations and results is therefore critical to ensure some accountability.

Taken together these reforms have the potential to give Canadians a much clearer picture of the impact of government’s regulatory activity. Making the hidden tax of regulation more visible deserves our applause and attention. Maybe soon we will have a regulatory accounting day that gets as much profile as budget day does.

Laura Jones is Executive Vice President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. She can be reached at laura.jones@cfib.ca.