Red Tape Challenge: Automotive parts manufacturing report

Introduction

The Red Tape Challenge is an online consultation to help the province, together with the advice of the business community, find ways to root out and eliminate duplication, lessen compliance burdens, shorten response times and make it simpler for businesses to interact with government.

This report is based on a review of all the comments and ideas submitted during the auto parts manufacturing round of the Red Tape Challenge. We worked with technical experts to analyze the feedback and prioritize the changes that will save businesses the most time and money, and research best practices in other locations.

The Red Tape Challenge is an integral part of Ontario’s Business Growth Initiative. The feedback we receive will help us modernize business regulations to be outcome-focused, evidence-based and protect the public interest. Other sectors participating in the challenge include food processing, financial services, mining, chemical manufacturing, forestry and tourism.

During the automotive consultation, we received comments on a wide range of topics. Some of the comments were made publicly, and are available online, and others were submitted privately.

In collaboration with our external consultants, 10 ministries and the Regulatory Modernization Committee, we identified 79 potential opportunities to reduce burdens or improve regulations for Ontario businesses and other stakeholders while still protecting environmental, health and worker safety standards.

We have created a plan that takes action on 63 of these 79 potential opportunities to modernize regulations. Forty-one or two thirds of these items will be addressed in the next two to three years. We will continue to monitor the remaining 22 opportunities and explore how best to take action. The other 16 opportunities do not fall under provincial authority, could increase the burden on businesses or are not regulatory issues under the mandate of the Red Tape Challenge, so no action will be taken on these items.

In March 2014, the government set a goal of achieving $100 million in savings for businesses by the end of 2017. To date, as reported in the 2016 Burden Reduction Report, the Province’s burden reduction initiatives have saved businesses over $122 million and more than five million hours since 2011. And we’re just getting started.

Regulatory modernization principles

The Ontario government recently reaffirmed its commitment to modernizing regulations in the 2016 Fall Economic Statement. Additionally, the Province’s Regulatory Modernization Committee formulated six principles that will serve as a lens through which to view burden reduction activities:

1. Focus on the user by writing regulations in plain language and creating a single point of contact for business to access information or government services.
2. Use international industry standards (e.g. ISO) where available/appropriate to eliminate redundant reporting requirements.
3. Move to risk-based inspections: reduce the enforcement burden on businesses with a strong safety and compliance record, using accreditation to distinguish good actors from high-risk targets; better coordinate inspections among ministries and agencies.
4. Create a “Tell Us Once” culture where all ministries that interact with business use the Business Number so businesses do not provide the same information to government repeatedly.
5. Apply a small business lens by setting different compliance paths to achieve desired outcomes, rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.
6. Go digital and reduce paper-based transactions by delivering simple and straightforward digital services and products that will modernize public service delivery and make government work better for businesses.

Participation numbers