Toronto, January 28, 2025 – The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has announced the 2025 Paperweight Awards, showcasing the most egregious examples of red tape mismanagement across Canada.
This year’s ‘winner’ is the Manitoba Government for backtracking on regulatory accountability with the introduction of Bill 16. Manitoba’s Regulatory Accountability Reporting Act and Amendments to The Statutes and Regulations Act strips away all of the province’s regulatory accountability tools, undoing years of progress. Other top offenders include the federal government’s botched GST/HST tax holiday, and the bureaucratic overreach on children’s playtime in Les Cèdres.
"For six years, Manitoba was a leader in regulatory accountability, showing other jurisdictions what’s possible when governments take red tape reduction seriously," said Ryan Mallough, Vice-President of Legislative Affairs. "With Bill 16, the government has wiped away that hard-won progress, leaving government without a clear way to measure or manage regulatory burdens. After years of charting new territory, why throw out the map?”
The new bill scraps key measures that helped keep the regulatory burden in check, including the requirement for the government to maintain a count of regulations—a system that has been in place since 2017— and the one-for-one rule which ensured outdated regulations were removed whenever new ones were introduced.
Sales tax nightmare before Christmas
The federal government’s GST/HST tax holiday, that promised to provide relief to businesses and consumers, turned into a logistical nightmare, with small businesses rushing to prepare just two weeks before the implementation date.
“Businesses were left scrambling to understand confusing rules, and consumers didn’t see the intended benefit. Toy and hobby store owners had to make judgement calls on things like adult versus child LEGO, while gift stores had to account for every item in gift baskets during their busiest times of year,” said Emily Boston, CFIB Senior Policy Analyst. “It’s a textbook example of good intentions gone awry due to poor planning and a total lack of understanding of the day-to-day operations of small businesses across the country.”
Quebec town’s ‘fun police’
In Les Cèdres, Quebec, families faced an outrageous new requirement: children must fill out paperwork to play outside. A bylaw requires local children fill out an annual form indicating what street they would like to play on, obtain signatures from two-thirds of the adult residents living on the relevant street, and then submit their form to the recreation director— or risk getting fined up to $1,000. “This kind of overreach doesn’t just create unnecessary headaches; it stifles community spirit,” said Boston. “It’s red tape at its most absurd.”
Other 2025 Paperweight Award honourees include:
• The City of Toronto introducing ridiculous rules for commercial dog walkers, and
• The City of Winnipeg charging $28 for residents and businesses to see their tax assessments
“Every year, the Paperweight Awards highlight the worst offenders in red tape mismanagement, and they are a reminder of how poor policy decisions affect everyday Canadians and small business,” said Francesca Basta, research analyst at CFIB. “We urge governments to reconsider these measures and refocus on reducing red tape to help entrepreneurs and communities thrive.”
For media enquiries or interviews, please contact:
Dariya Baiguzhiyeva, CFIB
647-464-2814
public.affairs@cfib.ca
About CFIB
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 100,000 members across every industry and region. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners’ chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings. Learn more at cfib.ca.
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