Regulatory reform: A case study of the Regulatory Advisory Committee (RAC) and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

Abstract

This paper examines a consensus-based approach to regulation making known as "regulation negotiation" or "regneg," and pursues the question, can regneg improve the performance of the federal regulatory process? Successfully implemented by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, regneg allows parties likely to be affected by a regulation to negotiate the substance of it. Although its use is rare in Canada, a similar process was used to help develop key regulations under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The paper argues that the performance of any regulatory process can be measured by its ability to accommodate the views of a more diverse range of interests, improve the quality of regulations, and hold regulation makers to a higher standard of accountability. Based on the U.S. and Canadian experience, the paper suggests that in certain circumstances, and with some refinements, regneg is capable of improving the regulatory process in all of these areas.