Cutting Red Tape for All Canadians Act
An Act to modernize certain regulatory and administrative processes
Summary
- Modernizes dozens of federal laws to cut red tape by enabling electronic administration and enforcement (CFIA, Environment, Fisheries), consolidating or repealing outdated orders/regulations, and streamlining how agricultural marketing boards operate.
- Eases agri-food rules by recognizing trusted foreign systems for feeds, fertilizers, seeds and veterinary biologics; simplifies the Advance Payments Program; and reduces CFIA reporting.
- Digitizes and speeds approvals in spectrum management by replacing technical acceptance certificates with a registration regime and allowing administration of electronic databases; clarifies application to Canadian-controlled spacecraft.
- Facilitates strategic infrastructure and transport by letting CBSA pilot exemptions, excluding closed-loop pumped storage reservoirs from “navigable waters,” updating rail exemption tools, and overhauling marine transportation security with interim orders, emergency directions, and clearer information-sharing.
- Streamlines commerce frameworks by modernizing the Statutory Instruments Act (online publication), updating Boards of Trade governance and financial review thresholds, aligning export certification under the Food and Drugs Act, and creating a small-business-focused summary bankruptcy and “small business proposal” track to lower insolvency costs and timelines.
Builder Assessment
Overall, the bill materially reduces regulatory friction, digitizes administration, and modernizes key economic frameworks, which supports productivity, investment, and export readiness. While some enforcement powers and penalties grow, the net effect is pro-competitiveness and efficiency.
- Strong positives: electronic administration and enforcement, streamlined agricultural programs, spectrum registration, modernized Boards of Trade, simplified export certification, and small‑business insolvency pathways.
- Strategic facilitation: pumped storage classification, faster rail/marine security decision tools, and recognition of foreign systems for agri‑inputs.
- Risks to monitor: expanded ministerial emergency and interim order powers could raise compliance uncertainty; AMPs escalation may burden smaller operators if guidance and proportionality are not clear.
- Suggested improvements: add binding service standards and sunset/regular review requirements for interim orders and CBSA exemptions; publish economic impact analyses for new AMPs; include explicit timelines for interprovincial mutual recognition and mobility; and commit to plain‑language guidance to minimize compliance costs for small entities.
Question Period Cards
What concrete service standards and transparency safeguards will accompany the CBSA Minister’s new time-limited exemption power to ensure it pilots innovations without creating uncertainty or favoritism in border programs?
When will the regulations for the new small business proposal and summary bankruptcy regimes be in force, and what is the government’s estimate of average time and cost savings per file for small firms?
By excluding closed-loop pumped storage reservoirs from the definition of navigable waters, how many energy storage projects are expected to be accelerated, and what measures will ensure environmental protections remain robust and timely?
Principles Analysis
✓
Canada should aim to be the world's most prosperous country.
Broad regulatory modernization, digital processes, and faster approvals reduce friction economy‑wide and support growth.
✓
Promote economic freedom, ambition, and breaking from bureaucratic inertia (reduce red tape).
Shifts to electronic administration, repeals legacy instruments, streamlines agri-programs, and modernizes Boards of Trade and insolvency rules.
✓
Drive national productivity and global competitiveness, including removing interprovincial trade barriers and improving labour mobility (one country, one market).
Recognition of foreign systems, standardized digital processes, and simplification of marketing delegations improve market functioning, though internal trade barriers are not comprehensively removed.
✓
Grow exports of Canadian products and resources, and move up the value chain by processing resources domestically rather than exporting them raw.
Removes duplicative export certifications (Food and Drugs Act) and eases approvals that support agri-food and energy projects, aiding export capacity and value-add.
✓
Encourage investment, innovation, and resource development.
Spectrum registration, pumped storage facilitation, agri-input recognition, and faster transport/security tools lower uncertainty and compliance costs for investors.
✓
Deliver better public services at lower cost (government efficiency).
Digital-by-default enforcement/admin, consolidated publication, and simplified reporting improve service delivery and cut administrative overhead.
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Reform taxes to incentivize work, risk-taking, and innovation.
No material tax reforms; measures are administrative and regulatory.
✓
Focus on large-scale prosperity, not incrementalism.
Omnibus scope spans agriculture, transport, digital regulation, trade facilitation, and insolvency—system-level improvements rather than piecemeal tweaks.
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PartySenate
StatusAt second reading in the Senate
Last updatedN/A
TopicsTechnology and Innovation, Trade and Commerce, Public Safety, Criminal Justice, Economics
Parliament45