This survey collects detailed information on the cost of compliance for businesses in meeting key regulatory requirements that are the responsibility of various levels of government. Your information may also be used by Statistics Canada for other statistical and research purposes.
Voluntary
Your participation in this survey is voluntary. However, since every respondent in this survey represents many other people in your province and in Canada, it is important that each respondent participate in order to ensure that the collected information is as precise and accurate as possible.
In order to accurately assess the cost to businesses in complying with regulations, it is essential that we have detailed information on the time, salaries and frequency involved in preparing and submitting information relating to individual regulations. This information will make it possible to track through time, the compliance cost of specific regulations. Participation in this survey is voluntary. However, your co-operation is essential to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information collected. This survey provides data on the current cost of regulatory compliance for small and medium-sized businesses, in meeting key information obligations that are the responsibility of various levels of government.
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Confidentiality
By law, Statistics Canada is prohibited from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent, or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Statistics Canada will use the information from this survey for statistical purposes only.
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Record linkage
To enhance the data from this survey and to reduce the respondent burden, Statistics Canada may combine the acquired data with information from other surveys or from administrative sources.
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Survey profile
Profile of the Survey of Regulatory Compliance Costs, 2016
Statistics Canada, in partnership with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, has designed this survey to achieve two main objectives:
- measure the cost of compliance for businesses in meeting key regulatory requirements that are the responsibility of various levels of government;
- help determine whether efficiency measures introduced by government are reducing the compliance burden facing businesses.
Two questionnaires
Two questionnaires have been created to meet the above objectives. Selected small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) will receive the main questionnaire, and businesses such as accounting and bookkeeping firms, legal offices, architecture and engineering offices will receive the shorter service provider's questionnaire.
Topics covered in the main questionnaire
Business demographics
- governmental requirements
- salaries
- costs of external suppliers
11 Regulations covered
- T4s, T4As and T5018s (including RL-1 forms in Quebec)
- federal and provincial business income tax return filings
- corporate income tax instalments
- federal and provincial sales tax remittances (GST/HST or PST)
- payroll remittances
- record of employment
- workers' compensation remittances
- workers' compensation claims
- corporate registration (annual filing or business status change) forms
- municipal and other provincial government regulatory requirements
- other mandatory federal government regulatory requirements
Information sought for each regulation
- number of submissions
- method of preparation
- method of submission
- identification of parties responsible for preparation and submission of documents
- total annual time spent by internal staff on the preparation and submission of documents and their average annual salary by category
Indirect and external costs
- amount spent on computer software and computer hardware for the sole purpose of complying with government regulations
- other services the external service provider(s) was responsible for
- total cost for all services provided by the external service provider(s).
Supplementary compliance questions
- degree to which complying with mandatory government regulatory paperwork is considered to be an obstacle for the business' success
- level of acceptance for the costs incurred to comply with mandatory government regulations
- level of government for which mandatory regulations are considered to be the most time consuming
- degree to which the reduction of mandatory government regulations should be a priority for the federal government.
Topics covered in the service providers questionnaire
- number of business clients
- breakdown of size of active business clients by revenue or employment
- types of services offered
- total hours spent and average hourly rates for each service
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Published data
Statistics Canada publishes the results of its surveys in many formats, the following list includes the latest articles and related documents for this survey:
- latest news releases published in The Daily
- Questionnaires, definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5093