by George Farkas
, CEO/ Founder, XBI Software Inc
It is most welcome that in the Federal 2010 budget, the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty announced that they would establish a Red Tape Reduction Commission. A second edition of a study by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), “Prosperity Restricted by Red Tape,” estimates that businesses in Canada currently spend over $30 billion each year complying with regulations. This amount is much too high, especially for small business, which is the most important element in stimulating our economy and employment.
XBRL Canada welcomed this announcement. In February, 2007, their annual conference was dedicated to explaining the cost of compliance (red tape). In the report “Reducing the Burden of Compliance through Standardization”, it was pointed out that reducing the compliance burden has two components: One is reducing the amount of information demanded by government. The other is reducing the difficulty in supplying the information that is required.
The new red tape reduction commission should include recommendations:
- streamlining compliance when it is important and necessary for Canada
- standardizing the terms and formats to reduce the amount of information required
- cooperation and collaboration between governments and regulators
- requiring submission of the same information to government only once.
The XBRL Canada announcement starts the discussion of using XBRL and SBR (standard business reporting) to reduce the cost of compliance. We expect the new red tape reduction commission, perhaps under the jurisdiction of Stockwell Day, to include experts in all these areas and to do their work quickly and effectively so that Canadians and small business can start profiting from the results as soon as possible.
To learn more about XBI Software, please visit www.xbisoftware.com
To learn more about XBRL Canada, please visit www.xbrl.ca
Send an email to Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, and to Stockwell Day, encouraging them to move quickly in establishing this commission as an open and transparent dialogue that encourages participation.
