Government Action Plan on Regulatory and Administrative Streamlining
In August 2004, Cabinet adopted an action plan to meet its commitments with regard to regulatory and administrative streamlining and to respond to the recommendations of various advisory groups as well as the report from the Groupe de travail conjoint sur l’administration de la fiscalité.
During the opening address of the 37th legislature on June 4, 2003, the Québec government promised to simplify regulations and administrative formalities, by amending the Loi sur la formation de la main-d’œuvre, revising Article 45 of the Labour Code, and introducing a mandatory revision process for all regulations five years after they take effect.
Since 1998, different advisory groups have submitted four reports on the subject with more than 200 recommendations. They focused on streamlining regulatory and administrative requirements affecting taxation, labour, the environment, and industry-related regulations in construction, natural resources, transport, tourism, and restaurants.
The last advisory group’s report, published September 9, 2003, noted progress achieved to date: members of the group estimated that a third of the recommendations proposed in 2000 and 2001 had been acted upon and another third were about to be. They also reminded the government that recommendations made previously had not yet been acted upon and therefore proposed new forms of streamlining and adjustments to the current policy.
The Groupe de travail conjoint sur l’administration de la fiscalité, formed in 2002 by Cabinet, completed its work in August 2003 by suggesting approximately 70 measures to help streamline corporate tax administration, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Areas of Intervention
The government action plan proposes measures according to the following areas of intervention:
- Launching the Portail gouvernemental de services aux enterprises (business services portal);
- Streamlining regulations and administrative formalities generally and in particular in tax administration, construction and the environment.
Action Plan – summary version (PDF, 118 kbytes, 12 pages)
Action Plan – details (PDF, 200 kbytes, 40 pages)
