Government Information in Canada / Information gouvernementale au Canada, Volume 2, number/numéro 1 (summer/été 1995)

Anti-Regulation Bill Will Lull Public's Watchman to Sleep 1

Brian Pannell 2

© 1995 Brian Pannell. Reprinted with permission from the Toronto Star.

ABSTRACT: The federal government may reintroduce Bill C-62, a proposed Regulatory Efficiency Act. The Act will permit anyone wanting to avoid a regulation to enter into a special "compliance plan" with the government, undermining the notion of one law for all.

RÉSUMÉ: Le gouvernement fédéral pourrait remettre en discussion le Projet de loi-62, une proposition de loi sur l'efficacité de la réglementation. Cette loi permettrait à tous ceux voulant éviter la réglementation à entrer en application des règlements avec le gouvernement, tout en minant l'idée d'une loi pour tous.

Get set for another attack on fair and equitable treatment under the law.

According to insiders, the federal Treasury Board soon will reintroduce Bill C-62, a proposed Regulatory Efficiency Act, permitting anyone to cut special -- possibly secret -- deals with the government to side-step regulations.

Passage of this act would be a victory for the forces of private privilege and arbitrary rule. The environment, public health and safety, and the public interest surely would be losers.

In the rush to streamline government operations, it has become fashionable to pretend that unsexy regulations are an impediment to Canadian society.

The truth is different. Regulations help to provide a high level of safety and order in the fabric of our lives. Federal regulations set the standards for aircraft safety, safe transportation of hazardous materials, x-ray equipment and level the playing field for business.

Bill C-62 will undermine protection -- and distort the playing field -- by making a quagmire of Canada's regulations. The Act will permit anyone who wishes to avoid a regulation to do so by entering into a special deal with two ministers of the Crown. These deals are to be called "compliance plans". Instead of providing efficiency, compliance plans will add a whole new level of complexity to Canada's laws. When the number of these special deals begin to multiply, the notion of one law for all will shrivel.

For all other Canadian legislation, citizens are expected to know the law. But under Bill C-62, employees of corporations which obtain a compliance plan will not be deemed to know the new law. Self-imposed ignorance will be a defence against prosecution. For this and other reasons, enforcement of compliance plans may be impossible.

Now, do not be mistaken. The pursuit of regulatory efficiency is a laudable goal. There are numerous things that could be done to achieve a more efficient application of the law. For example, consolidating Canada's 3,000 regulations into one accessible publication would help us all see these laws more clearly -- including the dead wood regulations. A systematic review and amendment process could eliminate or improve regulations that have, with age, become historical anachronisms.

Bill C-62, however, does not offer anything that would improve the regulatory process. In the true spirit of bafflegab, the Treasury Board has learned to bleat the word "efficiency" while ignoring obvious routes to a more efficient arrangement of Canada's laws. Consistent with all good bafflegab, Bill C-62 can, in fact, only make Canada's laws more difficult to understand and more difficult to enforce.

The proposed Regulatory Efficiency Act is not about government efficiency. It will not provide for simpler, better laws. Bill C-62 is about special treatment for the few who enjoy access to the corridors of power. Ultimately, it is about Ottawa's loss of will to protect the ordinary Canadian.

Ottawa has a duty to protect the environment and the health and safety of all Canadians. It is duty-bound to taxpayers to do so efficiently, especially at a time of mounting fiscal pressures. But the quest for efficiency must produce results, not slogans, and must never supersede the principles of fairness and equity under the law.

Mere amendments cannot repair a bill that is so fundamentally flawed. The Treasury Board should map out an entirely new route to efficiency, not try to recycle Bill C-62.

That's one piece of paper that should be landfilled.

Notes

[1] May be cited as/On peut citer comme suit:

Brian Pannell, "Anti-Regulation Bill Will Lull Public's Watchman to Sleep", Government Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada, Vol. 2, no. 1.2. (summer 1995).

Reprinted with permission from Toronto Star, 13 April 1995, p. A29.

[2]

Brian Pannell
Executive Director
Pollution Probe
12 Madison Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M5R 2S1

Telephone:  (416) 926 1907

FAX:        (416) 926 1601
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