About the PBRI

The Paperwork Burden Reduction Initiative (PBRI) involves measuring the costs and impact of regulatory compliance on small business and pursuing opportunities to reduce, rationalize and simplify regulatory requirements across federal departments and agencies. It was launched in February 2005 in response to the Government of Canada's 2004 Budget commitment to create a working group of government officials and small business representatives to measure the impact of regulatory compliance on businesses and make measurable reductions in paperwork burden.

The PBRI has three key components:

• Advisory Committee on Paperwork Burden Reduction (ACPBR)
  
  
• Survey of Regulatory Compliance Costs
  
  
• Annual progress reports to the Minister of Industry

The Paperwork Burden Reduction Initiative builds on the recommendations of the External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation (EACSR) presented in Smart Regulation: A Regulatory Strategy for Canada, released in September 2004. Specifically, the EACSR advocated that further work be done on issues relating to compliance and enforcement, including harnessing the potential of e-government as a vehicle for single-window access to government regulatory programs.

The PBRI contributes to the Government of Canada's Smart Regulation Strategy as it

• Addresses the regulatory burden imposed by federal departments and agencies;
  
  
• Encourages better coordination across federal government to reduce regulatory burden and manage unintended duplication of regulatory requirements;
  
  
• Examines the cumulative impact of regulations; and
  
  
• Establishes baseline data on the cost of compliance facing small businesses.