This enactment amends the Department of Industry Act to require that a small business impact assessment be made for eve­ry legislative initiative that could have a significant effect on Canadian small businesses.

Preamble

Whereas a Canadian economy that is prosperous, sustainable and resilient depends on healthy local economies and thriving small and medium-sized Canadian enterprises;

Whereas small businesses employ more than 60% of all working Canadians and are responsible for more than 50% of Canada’s economic activity;

Whereas small businesses are the lifeblood of small and rural communities and, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, owners of small businesses are more likely to reduce their own salaries during periods of economic recession than reduce the number of their employees;

And whereas the Government of Canada must protect and promote the role of small businesses in the Canadian economy by ensuring that the potential impacts of any new legislation on the success of small businesses are carefully considered;

Now, therefore, His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

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  (j) protect and promote the role of small businesses within the Canadian economy.

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  (f) conduct, in accordance with any regulations made under section 6.‍2, a small business impact assessment of legislative initiatives referred to in subsection 6.‍1(1) based on the following considerations:

• (i) the need to ensure that meaningful measures continue to be in place for facilitating the access of small businesses to financial assistance,

• (ii) the benefits of improving conditions for investment in and by small businesses,

• (iii) the need to ensure that the legislative initiative does not inhibit, directly or indirectly, the partic­ipation of small businesses in an efficient and competitive marketplace, and

• (iv) the recognition and application of the principle of net positive impact — as it pertains to the sustainability of small businesses — in determining whether or not the legislative initiative is beneficial to those businesses.

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Small business impact assessment

6.‍1 (1) The Minister shall examine every bill introduced in or presented to either House of Parliament by a minister of the Crown and every regulation that is required to be tabled before either of those Houses in order to ascertain whether any of the provisions of those legislative initiatives could have a significant effect on Canadian small businesses, and, if applicable, the Minister shall cause to be tabled before that House at the first convenient opportunity a small business impact assessment.

Canada Gazette

(2) If the legislative initiative is a proposed regulation, the small business impact assessment must be published with the proposed regulation in the Canada Gazette.

Regulations

6.‍2 The Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister, make regulations respecting

• (a) the considerations to apply in deciding if a legislative initiative referred to in subsection 6.‍1(1) would reasonably be expected to have a significant effect on the successful operation of Canadian small businesses;

• (b) the process to be followed in preparing and submitting a small business impact assessment;

• (c) the matters that must be addressed in each small business impact assessment, including a summary description of the legislative initiative’s quantitative and qualitative costs and benefits as they can reasonably be expected to impact Canadian businesses with less than 50 employees; and

• (d) the meaning and application of the principle of net positive impact for the purposes of subparagraph 6(f)‍(iv).

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