This week is the 5th annual Red Tape Awareness Week sponsored by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.  Their Provincial Affairs Director Elliott Sims says they are challenging all levels of government to commit to tackling the burden red tape places on small business and they want you to join them in the Red Tape Revolution.  He explains red tape is regulation that is out of date or unnecessary and doesn’t really add public value so it can be a number of things. Sims says it can be requiring duplicate forms or following rules that are inconsistent or don’t make common sense or just poor government customer service in terms of communicating rule changes or updating forms when new ones become available. He adds all these things add time and can cost money to small businesses and ordinary Canadians when they are trying to comply with government regulations.

Sims says you can find a petition that will be delivered to governments and more information on their website www.cfib.ca.