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United States-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC): What the Joint Action Plan means - cross-sectoral initiatives
Small Business Lens
Complex and overlapping regulatory requirements place unnecessary burden on businesses, reducing their competitiveness and forcing owners to spend time and money that could be better spent on innovation and strengthening the economy.
In addition, regulatory requirements in general often place a disproportionate burden on small businesses. In 2011, Canada and the U.S. made independent commitments to reduce the regulatory burden on small businesses in their respective jurisdictions by taking better consideration of small business realities when designing new regulations.
The Joint Action Plan includes a cross-sectoral initiative that builds on both Canada’s and the U.S.’s respective work in reducing the regulatory burden on small businesses. This Joint Action Plan proposes to:
- Share approaches and tools being developed by Canada and the U.S. to assess and account for the needs of small businesses when developing regulations.
Early information sharing will provide an opportunity to enhance regulators’ sensitivity to small businesses, particularly those engaged in cross-border trade. Canada-U.S. collaboration is anticipated to result in increased, risk-appropriate, regulatory flexibility for small businesses, which will better enable them to comply with regulatory requirements.
Building on the work of the Red Tape Reduction Commission, which is working closely with Canadian industry to reduce the burden of regulation on businesses that operate in Canada, the Government of Canada is creating a better economic environment so that small businesses can continue to grow and create jobs.
Nanomaterials
Nanomaterials are extremely small amounts of matter, typically from 1 to 100 nanometres (nm) in size – by comparison, a human hair is about 100,000 nm in diameter. Nanomaterials can be used to create new and innovative materials, devices and systems. Ensuring that Canada and the U.S. apply similar regulatory approaches to nanomaterials will be critical in reducing risks to environmental and human health while fostering innovation. Existing domestic statutes have provided a firm foundation for the regulation and oversight of nanomaterials, which are used in a broad range of applications, from consumer goods (e.g., tennis balls and paint) to medical purposes (e.g., disease detection and enhanced surgical procedures). Aligned regulatory approaches will ensure consistency for consumers and industry within and between both countries. The Joint Action Plan proposes to:
- Share information and develop joint Canada-U.S. approaches on regulatory aspects of nanomaterials.
This will include developing consistent approaches to the risk assessment and management of nanomaterials, as well as sharing scientific and regulatory expertise.
More details on these and other Regulatory Cooperation Council Joint Action Plan measures are available at http://actionplan.gc.ca/border.
