Administrative Burden Baseline: Update 2022

In its Red Tape Reduction Action Plan, the Government committed to build on the efforts of the paperwork Burden Reduction Initiative by requiring departments, through the Administrative Burden Baseline, to provide a count of the requirements in federal regulations that impose an administrative burden on business.

The Administrative Burden Baseline provides Canadians with a clear metric on the total number of requirements in federal regulations and associated forms that impose an administrative burden on business. This baseline contributes to the openness and transparency of the federal regulatory system. Administrative burden includes planning, collecting, processing and reporting of information, and completing forms and retaining data required by the federal government to comply with a regulation. This includes filling out licence applications and forms, as well as finding and compiling data for audits and becoming familiar with information requirements.

Only those regulatory requirements imposing an administrative burden are within scope of the Administrative Burden Baseline initiative. The findings reported below include consideration of documents (for examples, a manual or external standard) and forms incorporated by reference into the Regulations, if they impose an administrative burden on business.

All federal regulations that are administered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that have requirements that impose an administrative burden on business are identified below. The total count for 2022 is 5,508. The total count on June 30th, 2014 (the baseline count) was 10,989.

A number of changes have been made since the administrative burden baseline update in 2021. The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, under the Food Product Innovation package, was amended resulting in a regulatory requirement reduction of 174. Additionally, under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations 1 directive was incorporated by reference came into force, however it did not result in an administrative burden change.

The amendments, modifications and changes made to CFIA regulations, directives and forms have resulted in an overall net increase administrative burden count of 334 or 6% from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. The majority of the administrative burden change came from 21 forms which were developed, updated, or revised so as to meet regulatory requirements. In particular, the principal reason for the overall net increase is the addition of 2 large forms under Feeds Regulations, 1983 and a new form in the Health of Animals Regulations.

Under the Feeds Regulations, 1983 the new forms would only be required if an applicant requires permission for researching the use of new feeds which are not on the list of exempted feeds, if the applicant requires pre-market evaluation, or if they require a pre-submission meeting with the CFIA. The new form under the Health of Animals Regulations is a direct consequence of the recent outbreak of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza. Collectively, these 3 forms contribute to the majority of the increase in administrative burden.

Together, the total increase from the various forms, combined with the reductions due to regulatory amendments resulted in a net increase in administrative burden of 334 for 2022. However, since the baseline administrative burden count in 2014, the 2022 figures represent an overall decrease of approximately 50% to the administrative burden by the CFIA.

Administrative Burden Baseline count as of June 30, 2022

Food and Drugs Act (as it relates to food)

• Food and Drugs Regulations

  Note that the administrative burden baseline counts for the Food and Drugs Act (as it relates to food), are posted on Health Canada's website. Visit Health Canada's Administrative Burden Baseline page to view this count.

Total count: 5,508

Previous years' counts for Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are available upon request.

Contact

Canadian Food Inspection Agency
cfia.legislation-legislation.acia@inspection.gc.ca

For more information

All of the government's Acts and Regulations can be found on the Justice Laws website.

Consult the following for links to the Cabinet Directive on Regulation and supporting policies and guidance, and for information on government-wide regulatory initiatives implemented by departments and agencies across the Government of Canada:

• Federal regulatory management
• Learn more about regulatory cooperation

To learn about upcoming or ongoing consultations on proposed federal regulations, visit:

• Consulting with Canadians
• Canada Gazette