Administrative Burden Baseline: Update 2024

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 are the result of an analysis of any changes to administrative requirements within regulations, documents incorporated by reference, or forms. "Incorporation by Reference" (IBR) describes a drafting technique that introduces the content of an internal (CFIA) or external (non-CFIA) document (such as a policy, directive, list, or standard) into a regulation without having to reproduce the document's text in the regulation. This allows for more agility and updates to regulatory oversight, which supports more modern regulations. All federal regulations administered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that have requirements that impose an administrative burden on business are identified below.

The CFIA's total administrative burden count for 2024 is 4,178. The total count on June 30, 2014 (the baseline count) was 10,989. Compared to 2014, the 2024 figures represent an overall CFIA administrative burden decrease of over 60%. In addition, the 2024 net administrative burden represents a 15% reduction, or decrease of 710, compared with the 2023 administrative burden count of 4,888.

For administrative burden associated with regulations, the repeal and replacement of the previous Feeds Regulations, 1983 with the modernized Feeds Regulations, 2024 contributed to a reduction in net administrative burden by 71. The new feeds regulations reflect a modernized and outcome-based approach with increased flexibility in record keeping and documentation requirements. To note, administrative burden requirements related to preventive control plans and licensing have a delayed coming into force date and will be counted in future reports as they come into force. Finally, the Hatchery Exclusion Regulations were repealed but had no impact on the count as they did not include any administrative burden.

The largest contributor to the overall decrease in administrative burden was attributed to a net decrease of 399 from forms. This included updates to various forms in 2024, as well as an internal review of existing forms. For instance, 20 forms were updated this past year. This included streamlining and removing redundant information leading to a moderate decrease in administrative burden. Stakeholders should experience improvements as a result of updates to these forms. Additionally, the CFIA undertook a detailed internal review of its existing forms which contributed to a large decrease in administrative burden count. This review resulted in form count corrections (such as the removal of voluntary fields which do not necessarily impose administrative burden) and the removal of inactive forms.

There was also a significant reduction of 240 in net administrative burden is attributed to IBRs. Namely, an IBR document (Live Animal Regulations ‐ International Air Transport Association Standards), was removed as it was erroneously counted previously. The IBR is a technical standard associated with animal stocking densities and design and construction standards for the transport of animals, which do not introduce administrative burden. The removal of this specific IBR document resulted in a decrease of 242 in administrative burden. The addition of an IBR document (Canadian hatchery and supply flock testing standards), which came into force in Fall 2024 after a one-year delayed coming into force of the regulations for hatcheries, added a count of two. Of note, there are nine IBRs associated with the Feeds Regulations, 2024, however, these particular IBRs only provide technical information and are not associated with administrative burden.

Collectively, the impact of regulatory changes, documents incorporated by reference, and forms resulted in a net decrease in administrative burden of 710 for 2024. Since the baseline administrative burden count in 2014, the 2024 count represents an overall decrease of over 60% to administrative burden by the CFIA.

Administrative Burden Baseline Count as of June 30, 2024

Food and Drugs Act (as it relates to food)

• Food and Drugs Regulations

Please 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.

Previous years' counts for the CFIA are available upon request.

Contact

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