Key Takeaways
- Both major federal parties and business leaders agree that excessive red‑tape is Canada’s top barrier to investment, surpassing even trade‑agreement uncertainty.
- International benchmarks place Canada’s regulatory framework near the bottom of OECD peers—33rd in the World Bank’s Business Ready ranking and 26th in the OECD Product Market Regulation index, down from 10th in 1998.
- The Business Council of Alberta’s “From Barriers to Breakthroughs” roadmap recommends binding approval timelines, stronger cost‑benefit analysis, risk‑based regulation, and other concrete reforms.
- Regulatory costs are massive: small businesses face roughly $51.5 billion in annual compliance expenses, equivalent to 768 million hours of paperwork or about
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