Canada. Office of the Coordinator, Regulatory Reform : The Office of the Coordinator, Regulatory Reform (ORR) was the first federal body whose primary mandate was regulatory reform. Established in December, 1979 as a special unit of the Treasury Board Secretariat within the Administrative Policy Branch, Regulatory Reform was ostensibly in charge of developing a reform strategy; yet, at the same time, the Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce, the Federal-Provincial Relations Office, the Office of the Comptroller General, the Privy Council Office, the Prime Minister's office and a variety of departments were all making discrete regulatory review initiatives. The Office of the Coordinator gradually achieved a semi-autonomous status. In 1986 Regulatory Affairs received a statutory mandate as half of a new independent agency called the Office of Privatization and Regulatory Affairs (OPRA) which reported to the President of the Treasury Board with the status of a separate department (PC 1986-2788, 11 Dec 1986). For a short period of time, 1988-1991, OPRA moved out of the Treasury Board orbit and reported first to the President of the Privy Council (PC 1988-642) and then the Minister of Finance (PC 1989-134). Under the provisions of the Public Service Rearrangement and Transfer of Duties Act (RSC 1985, s. P-34), Order-in-Council PC 1991-416, 1 March 1991, abolished the Office and transferred the control and supervision of Regulatory Affairs functions of OPRA back to the Treasury Board Secretariat where it has remained
Since the 1970s, regulatory reform has sought to address the irony in public administration that the very administrative tool represented by regulatory orders and specific regulatory programs or agencies across the whole scope of government activity had traditionally operated in an ad hoc fashion without being coordinated or regulated or subject to a process of review permitting public input and effectiveness and impact evaluation. When, in 1979, the federal government began to respond to the public debate on the subject and look for a suitable administrative mechanism to develop and administer a consistent and transparent regulatory review process, the Administrative Policy Branch of the Treasury Board Secretariat was a natural home, well experienced with developing and administering accountability structures to rationalize various classes of cross-government activity. The short history of regulatory reform may be divided into two parts, 1971-1985 and 1986 to the present. The Nielsen Task Force on Program Review marks the point at which the political will, public pressure and bureaucratic activity came together belatedly to implement a fiscally conservative reform agenda. The new emphasis incorporated government-wide planning, systematic program review, meaningful public consultation, a consolidated and published regulatory agenda or plan of intentions to facilitate public participation, clear standards for regulatory submissions and the requisite Regulatory Impact Analysis Statements that must accompany them, standardized procedures for all regulatory approvals by cabinet, publication of more detailed information about proposals, and departmental responsibility to complete regulatory impact and cost-benefit studies as well as to receive and evaluate the public input before making a formal submission. This consensus was codified in the recommendations of the Nielsen Task Force on Program Review. The relationship between the policy development function of the Treasury Board and the Nielsen Task Force report are direct. The Office of Regulatory Reform provided coordination and support for the whole Task Force, and the chairman and three of the seven public sector members of the regulatory study team which developed the specific recommendations for reforming the regulatory review process.
The conception outlined in the Nielsen Task Force report was mirrored in the initiative of 31 March 1986 with the launching of the new Office of Privatization and Regulatory Affairs. The innovations in 1986 of a formal Regulatory Policy, of OPRA as an accountability and enforcement agency and of a Citizen's Code of Regulatory Fairness amounted to a fundamental departure in the regulation making process. The Office of Regulatory Reform was originally conceived in 1979 as a temporary agency that would disappear after two years. Even when established on a more permanent basis its mandate was simply too large for a small agency with no real authority. It aimed primarily at stimulating key departments to undertake the real work of review. It possessed no mechanism to enforce compliance. As the special study team on regulatory programs for the Nielsen Task Force noted, after six years, the ORR had still not achieved its short term objectives.
The mandate and functions of the Treasury Board Secretariat in relation to regulatory affairs in general and the "Federal Regulatory (approval) Process" in particular have remained limited and specific, as befits the philosophy behind the program. Regulatory Affairs has consistently served as the guardian of the Federal Regulatory Policy; it constitutes a policy directorate with the administrative responsibility to ensure that regulatory reform remains a continuous and effective process throughout the federal government. In the review process for regulatory proposals, the Treasury Board Secretariat now plays a deliberately marginal role in contrast to the initial pro-active gate-keeper function performed briefly under the old Office of Privatization and Regulatory Affairs (OPRA). The principal actors lie elsewhere, in the regulating departments themselves, the Privy Council Office Section of the Justice Department (PCOJ), the Privy Council Office (PCO), and the Special Committee of Council (SCC) and, in relation to the program review function, the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG).
The Regulatory Affairs office at TBS was essentially a small policy management directorate of half a dozen officers usually located in the Administrative Policy Branch (1979-1986 and 1991 to 1995). From 1991-1995, as a downsized division in the Treasury Board Secretariat, Regulatory Affairs sought to use the leverage of Treasury Board's expenditure management to enforce the Federal Regulatory Policy and its own rising standards for both the submission of regulatory proposals by departments and requirements for systematic regulatory program review. The new association between expenditure management and more rigorous standards in the regulatory review process set the stage in the reengineering of Treasury Board in 1995-96 wherein the Administrative Policy Branch completely disappeared and Regulatory Affairs activities as well as related activities of the Office of Comptroller General were reconstructed into components of the three program sectors into which the Treasury Board has devided all government agencies for a holistic approach to all financial management and accountability review processes. The full implementation of the revised regulatory review process in 1991 relegated TBS activity to a residual watchdog role in relation to the review procedure and a continuing strategic policy development function. Day to day, the reconstituted regulatory affairs function at Treasury Board monitors the review function of the Federal Regulatory Process. While it may in theory intervene to block a proposal (increasingly rare), its main activity in the review process is to ensure that the 700 to 900 regulatory proposals that come forward each year meet adequate standards of impact and evaluation documentation. It thereby keeps the review process as streamlined and consistent as possible. The end result reflects Treasury Board leadership in policy development but leaves it deliberately with limited operational activities. On the model of so many Treasury Board activities since the late 1970's, Regulatory Affairs performs an accountability role that seeks to integrate its standards into departmental procedures.
