CFIB gives Ontario full marks for regulatory accountability

As part of its 13th annual Red Tape Awareness Week, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) released its updated annual Red Tape Report Card, grading provinces in two key areas: regulatory accountability, and regulatory burden.

Ontario received its second consecutive A for regulatory accountability, achieving 10/10 scores for each regulatory accountability category, including: comprehensive measure of the regulatory burden, public reporting of the regulatory burden, and regulatory budget. The highest grade CFIB awards for regulatory accountability is an A.

“This is the first time in the 12-year history of CFIB’s Red Tape Report Card that the Ontario government achieved full marks for regulatory accountability,” said Julie Kwiecinski, CFIB’s director of provincial affairs, Ontario. “We commend the Ontario government for committing to add the number of regulatory requirements on people to their regulatory count, and for recognizing the significant cost to businesses of complying with government rules by greatly improving their regulatory budgeting requirements.”

Regulatory accountability makes up 60 per cent of the overall grade this year, leaving 40 per cent for regulatory burden. Ontario’s A for regulatory accountability, combined with a D for regulatory burden, gives the province a final overall grade of B+ for 2022.

The Ontario government lost points under the regulatory burden area for having the highest number of regulations in the country, while gaining points for achieving the lowest number of regulations per capita of any province. Ontario also lost points for not allowing direct-to-consumer interprovincial shipment of Canadian wines. Ontario consumers are not permitted to have wines from wine producers in other provinces shipped directly to them.

“The government has shown regulatory agility during the pandemic,” said Ryan Mallough, CFIB’s senior director of provincial affairs, Ontario. “We need to make that mindset the default as we look to spur small business recovery. A good place to start is to eliminate the barriers to direct-to-consumer shipping of wines to Ontarians from other provinces.”

For more information on Ontario’s 2022 grades and report card criteria, please refer to CFIB’s 2022 Red Tape Report Card.