Guide on Improving Service Performance for Regulatory Authorizations

Purpose

This Guide on Improving Service Performance for Regulatory Authorizations (the guide) outlines the requirements that departments and agencies must meet to comply with the Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management. These requirements encompass the commitments outlined in the Government of Canada’s Red Tape Reduction Action Plan that responds to the recommendations of the Red Tape Reduction Commission. This guide is intended for use by federal public servant employees responsible for developing service standards and posting them on departmental and agency websites.

Quality of service and predictability of service are legitimate expectations of Canadians when interacting with the Government of Canada. The establishment of timeliness service standards for regulatory authorizations will clarify expectations and increase predictability in the federal regulatory system. This will benefit the many Canadians, particularly businesses, who must seek permission from the federal government either to conduct a regulated activity or be exempt from it.

Effective Date

This guide takes effect immediately on distribution to departments and agencies.

Context

Canada’s regulatory system is designed to protect and advance the public interest in the areas of health, safety and security, the quality of the environment, and the social and economic well-being of Canadians. While regulation itself is not a service, there is a small sub-set of regulatory activities that are characteristic of a service. These activities are called regulatory authorizations.

Regulatory authorizations largely have an enabling function. The Government of Canada grants an individual, business, or regulated entity permission either to conduct a regulated activity or be exempt from it. In the case of business, clear and timely government decisions in this area can have an impact on their ability to operate, grow or expand their business.

Canadians expect, and deserve, professionalism and predictability from regulators. Service standards are a public commitment to a measurable level of performance that clients can expect under normal circumstances. They help clarify expectations for clients, including by indicating how long clients should expect to wait to receive a service once that service has been accessed. By establishing service standards for regulatory authorizations, the government is creating a more transparent and predictable federal regulatory system that will make it easier for regulated parties to know what to expect, particularly in terms of the timeliness of decision making.

On April 1, 2012, a new federal regulatory policy, the Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management, entered into force, replacing the 2007 Cabinet Directive on Streamlining Regulation. The Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management outlines specific requirements for the development, implementation, evaluation and review of regulations, including those that relate to service performance.

The requirements for developing service standards are outlined in Section 7(P) of the Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management, “Service Performance.” It stipulates that:

• Departments and agencies are responsible for maintaining high levels of professionalism in their interactions with affected Canadians, including businesses, and for providing them with clear and timely decisions.
• Departments and agencies will therefore develop and publish services standards that, at a minimum, address the timeliness of decision making. They will also report publicly on performance against those standards, particularly for regulatory authorizations (e.g., licensing, permits, certifications).
• Departments and agencies will also clarify information requirements and the process to be followed, including the process for complaints about poor service.

The Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management is not the only federal policy instrument that requires the development and publication of service standards. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s (the Secretariat’s) 2004 Policy on Service Standards for External Fees states that “the provision of services external to the federal government, for which fees are charged, must be accompanied with service standards that are: (a) measurable; and (b) relevant at the level of the paying stakeholder.” This requirement also extends to longstanding regulatory authorizations that charge a fee (that is, those that were in existence at the time the policy came into effect). The Policy on Service Standards for External Fees complements the 2004 User Fees Act, which requires the development of service standards when proposing a new fee or amending an existing fee. Accordingly, all regulatory authorizations that charge the user (applicant) a fee are already required to have a service standard in place.

There are many different regulatory authorizations across the government. For some of these authorizations, departments and agencies receive and process thousands of applications a year, many of these from businesses. In the 2012 Red Tape Reduction Action Plan, the Government of Canada commits to set service standards specifically for high-volume regulatory authorizations.

The requirements in this guide implement both the Red Tape Reduction Action Plan and the Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management. Given the specific nature of the Government of Canada’s commitments in the Red Tape Reduction Action Plan, departments and agencies should focus early efforts on developing service standards for high-volume regulatory authorizations that impact business and that do not currently have publicly available service standards.

Scope of Application

This guide applies to all federal departments, agencies, and entities, as defined by Section 3 of the Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management (refer to Table 1).

Canadians expect the Government of Canada to provide professional and predictable service, irrespective of whether or not a fee is charged for the service. Accordingly, the requirements in Section 7(P) of the Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management do not distinguish between regulatory authorizations that charge user fees and those that do not.

As previously stated in Section 3 of this guide, all regulatory authorizations that charge a user fee are required either by the User Fees Act or by the Policy on Service Standards for External Fees to have publicly available service standards in place. Therefore, departments and agencies should focus their early attention on developing (and posting on the Web) service standards for high-volume regulatory authorizations that impact business and that do not currently have publicly available service standards.