Self-Serving "Red Tape Review" and Cuts
to Federal Departments
President of the Treasury Board Shafqat Ali made a statement on September 8 that his department had published progress reports identifying "nearly 500 recent and forward-looking initiatives to streamline services, cut duplication, and reduce costs for Canadians and businesses." He claimed that these reports "mark a major step forward in our ongoing commitment to eliminating red tape."
The 500 reports were not made available to the workers in the sectors of the economy they affect and no public opinion was solicited to approve criteria or standards for those sectors. It is a fundamentally self-serving pursuit whose sole aim is to scrounge public funds for Carney's restructuring of the state to pay the rich for privatization and to militarize the economy.
It goes without saying that all programs require constant renovation, modernization and efficiencies but not at the expense of the public interest. That is what has been taking place for the last more than 30 years since the neo-liberal anti-social offensive was launched in the mid 1980s.
It is not surprising to see the Business Council of Canada (BCC) chirp up on cue with a statement titled "Stifled by Red Tape." It complains about excessive regulation which the BCC self-servingly declares harms Canada's economic growth and future, deterring companies and investors. The BCC places Canada's regulatory burden as among the heaviest in its membership. The example is given of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, with bond-rating agency S&P reporting that "Canada has taken about 20 years on average to approve a mine." The BCC quotes The Economist saying that Canada is an "accountant's paradise" for its complex tax code.
Its list of "top 10 obstacles that government should fix" pretty much coincide with what the Carney government is doing to pay the rich at the expense of the social and natural environment. They are:
1. Permitting for infrastructure projects;
2. Financial services complexity;
3. Package labels;
4. Global minimum tax;
5. Regulatory impact statements;
6. Foreign worker permits;
7. Privacy patchwork;
8. Paid leave days;
9. Building permits; and
10. Different regimes for Environment, Social and Governance
(ESG) reporting.
A review of past government red tape reductions by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' Bruce Campbell, published on September 3, confirms that when regulations clash with corporate interests, the public interest will be compromised or subordinated to them and that such government projects are accompanied by austerity measures, including cuts to regulatory agencies. Campbell points to harmful examples of industry self-regulation with limited or no direct public oversight, as in the 1985 task force created by the Mulroney government to eliminate "red tape," then the "smart regulation" initiative of the Chrétien government in 2004.
Campbell points out that safety oversight regimes, called Safety Management Systems, were introduced in 2002. These allowed the regulator to outsource responsibility for operationalizing and implementing regulations to industry, providing government cover from its responsibility in the event of failures.
Campbell recalls that the Harper government issued a Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management in 2012, the centrepiece of which was a rule that regulatory agencies offset each proposed new or amended regulation by removing at least one existing regulation. This "progressively lowered the ceiling on the number of regulations without regard to whether those removed would compromise safety."
Campbell goes on to explain that this approach was continued under Trudeau, giving examples of the consequences of the deep flaws in regulatory regimes such as the sinking of the Ocean Ranger offshore drilling platform in 1982; the Westray Mine disaster in 1992; the Walkerton water contamination in 2000; the 2008 listeria outbreak; and the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster in 2013. At Lac-Mégantic, Campbell writes that the deaths of 47 people "were collateral damage from the culmination of mutually reinforcing policies of cutting red tape – which subordinated government's obligation to protect the public – aligned that terrible night. It was a perfect storm of regulatory failure and corporate negligence." He points out that the necessary safety regulations have not been put in place to prevent a similar event.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) was notified of impending job cuts at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) on August 25, approximately 320 positions. In a June 17 report, PHAC forecasts a nearly 40 per cent drop in funding for its core functions and internal services between 2025-26 and 2027-28 and a nearly 30 per cent drop in jobs, from 3,081 full-time equivalent positions in 2025-26 to 2,167 by 2027-28.
This is separate from the 15 per cent reduction in spending over the next three years requested of all departments by the Finance Minister. PIPSC president Sean O'Reilly told the Hill Times, "It really concerns me when they talk about these [job] reductions because when you eliminate scientists who monitor disease outbreaks, the experts who ensure our water is safe to drink, and the specialists who provide early warnings before health emergencies, you're not just cutting those jobs. You're gambling with Canadian lives."
This article was published in
Volume 55
Number 10 - October 2025
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2025/Articles/M5501010.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca