Book Description

Canada, one of the OECD’s strongest economies, has a mature, effective and innovative system of regulatory governance closely linked to the government’s public policy goals. Canadians attach growing priority to health, safety and the environment, and seek a balance among economic, competitiveness and social goals. This is a demanding agenda: in international trade – a major driver of the economy – Canada needs to maintain a careful balance between bilateral and multilateral liberalisation efforts. Further work is needed to improve the effectiveness of the single internal market. Competition policy needs to make a much stronger contribution to regulatory reform and market openness. Despite a positive policy shift, some important sectors are protected through import and foreign ownership restrictions. The recently launched government’s Innovation Strategy is expected to make a major contribution to address these challenges. Canada is one of many OECD countries to request a broad review by the OECD of its regulatory practices and reforms. This review presents an overall picture, set within a macro-economic context, of regulatory achievements and challenges including the quality of the public sector, competition policy and market openness. It also assesses progress in the telecommunications sector. The background material used to prepare this report is available at: www.oecd.org/regreform/backgroundreports In the same series: Regulatory Reform in the Czech Republic Regulatory Reform in Denmark Regulatory Reform in Greece Regulatory Reform in Hungary Regulatory Reform in Ireland Regulatory Reform in Italy Regulatory Reform in Japan Regulatory Reform in Korea Regulatory Reform in Mexico Regulatory Reform in the Netherlands Regulatory Reform in Poland Regulatory Reform in Spain Regulatory Reform in Turkey Regulatory Reform in the United Kingdom Regulatory Reform in the United States The policy starting point for these reviews is presented in the OECD Report on Regulatory Reform: Synthesis, and the supporting two-volume OECD Report on Regulatory Reform: Sectoral and Thematic Studies, published in 1997.