ARCHIVED—Small Business and Regulatory Burden
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PDF Version
(246 KB, 18 pages)
Small Business Branch
October 2003
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. What is regulatory burden?
- 3.Inpact on Small Business
- 4. Policy Response
- 5. What next?
- References
Abstract
Regulatory burden is the intervention of government in the operation of a business and the cost of complying with regulatory requirements. When dealing with government regulations, small businesses often face proportionally higher costs than larger businesses due to economies of scale, resulting in a disadvantage for the sector as a whole. Measuring the compliance costs from the firm's point of view is difficult, considering the range of requirements imposed by all orders of government through legislation, regulations or administrative policies. Governments distinguish restrictive regulations from enabling regulations, which confer a clear benefit to businesses and outweigh their costs. Policy responses to reduce regulatory burden may be aimed at easing the compliance process; reducing compliance costs by changing the way regulations are delivered ("regulatory flexibility"); or favouring small business in the application of regulations ("regulatory tiering"). The paper concludes with a number of questions the federal government may want to consider in addressing this issue.
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