Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): I think this government and all governments, provincial and territorial, recognize the importance of modernizing our regulatory framework and making it more efficient and effective for businesses to do their business, to grow and emerge while at the same time making sure that the measures in place to save Canadians, whether it is in the areas of fraud or consumer products, remain vigorous and in place. This government, in its areas of jurisdiction, has embarked upon — and we had an example of it in this chamber not that long ago — measures to modernize regulatory frameworks within many areas of legislation.

Of course, the regulation of businesses is a matter of provincial jurisdiction, and each province has its responsibility as well to ease the regulatory burden where appropriate on individuals and businesses.

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Actually, another former Bank of Canada governor, Stephen Poloz, last month pointed to the fact that Canada was second to last for productivity performance among the OECD — the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development — countries. He said that government red tape and overregulation are impairing Canada’s economic productivity and have created too much uncertainty for businesses.

He said:

I do think that there is a stronger incentive to clean up some of the regulatory issues, the red tapey type of issues that are slowing us down.

Senator Gold, do you agree that we must reduce the government’s red tape? What is the Trudeau government’s plan to reduce red tape and regulatory burden?