The Voice: August 25th, 2026

Meanwhile, Canada’s major trading partners are moving in the opposite direction. Governments around the world are streamlining permitting, digitizing public services, coordinating regulations across departments and aligning with trusted international standards to make it easier to invest and do business. Simply put, Cananda  isn’t  keeping pace.  The risk of that? We are becoming  a less attractive place to invest, grow a business and create jobs. No businesses, no work, no jobs.

So, What Needs to Change? 

The Canadian Chamber submitted nine recommendations to the Treasury Board of Canada, all centered around making it easier to do business in, and with, Canada. That includes making government services easier to use by:

• Creating a searchable inventory of regulations and using AI to identify outdated and duplicative requirements;
• Implementing an “Ask Once” policy that requires the government to source information from within the federal space rather than asking businesses repetitively for the same information year-after-year.
• Adopt a digital-first approach by replacing paper-based processes, wet signatures and other outdated administrative requirements.

It also means creating a more predictable regulatory system by:

• Setting clear service standards and timelines for regulatory approvals;
• Making regulations easier to find, understand and track through a modernized digital consultation platform, including a redesign of the Canada Gazette system;
• Improving transparency and accountability and making it easier to challenge decisions when important impacts have been overlooked.

Finally, Canada should strengthen its long-term competitiveness by:

• Applying a government-wide competitiveness lens to all new regulations to ensure they don’t create unnecessary burdens for Canadian businesses compared to key trading partners;
• Renewing regulatory cooperation with the U.S., including a relaunch of the relaunch of the Regulatory Cooperation Council, and expanding collaboration with other trusted partners;
• Implementing a new requirement that a new regulation can only be introduced when two regulations of equal burden are removed.

Canada can maintain strong public protections without lowering standards and still create a regulatory system that’s easier to navigate, more predictable and better suited to today’s economy.  When businesses spend less time navigating unnecessary administrative hurdles, they can spend more time doing what drives our economy forward: hiring talent, investing in new ideas and making Canada an easier place to do business.

Read the Canadian Chamber's recent Government Submission.  Read out local Chamber's policy on Creating a Business-Friendly Regulatory Environment, one of our local chamber's 46 policy resolutions aimed to help improve the business environment in our region.