Small Business and Regulatory Burden

Small Business, Tourism and Marketplace Services

Small Business and Tourism Branch

Small Business and Regulatory Burden

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.

Date: 2003
Format: HTML, PDF
Registration Number: 54362E
Catalogue Number: lu188-8/2006E-PDF
ISBN: 0-662-43161-8

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