Ontario earns its first-ever A in CFIB’s Red Tape Report Card

Toronto, January 28, 2026 – Ontario scored its first-ever A (9.1/10) in CFIB’s 2026 Red Tape Report Card released today as part of CFIB’s 17th annual Red Tape Awareness Week™. The grade is up from last year’s A- (8.9/10) – largely due to the province’s significant progress on removing internal trade barriers – and places Ontario in a tie with Nova Scotia for the second-best overall score after Alberta.

“We commend the Ontario government for staying laser-focused on red tape reduction since 2018,” said Angela Drennan, CFIB’s Ontario Vice-President, Legislative Affairs. “On average, small business owners across Canada spend 32 working days a year on red tape. Every minute devoted to complying with unnecessary, excessive, duplicative, and outdated rules is a minute not spent on growing the economy and creating employment opportunities for Ontarians.”

“Under the leadership of Premier Ford, our government has led the charge to cut red tape and make Ontario the best place to invest, work, and live,” said Hon. Andrea Khanjin, Minister of Red Tape Reduction. “By working closely with partners like the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, we’ve delivered real results, saving time and money for businesses and families. Earning an ‘A’ grade on CFIB’s Red Tape Report Card proves that Ontario is setting the standard for competitiveness. We’re protecting Ontario’s future and building a more competitive, resilient and self-reliant economy by cutting red tape and ensuring businesses can grow and succeed.” 

In this year’s report card, CFIB once again graded the federal government and provinces in three key areas: Regulatory Accountability (40%), Regulatory Burden (40%), and Political Priority (20%). Bonus points were awarded this year for setting and publishing service standards and wait times for permit, form and application processing. Ontario received the full 10 bonus points for posting government service standards by Ministry for business permitting and licensing services, effective January 1, 2025. The province is also working on a site (now in Beta testing) where businesses can find and track permits and licences. 

“The proof of Ontario’s political leadership on red tape reduction is in the numbers,” said Julie Kwiecinski, CFIB’s Ontario Director of Provincial Affairs. “CFIB data shows that between 2024 and 2025, Ontario reduced its total number of regulatory requirements by 3.5%. The only other province with a reduction during the same period is Nova Scotia by 0.1%.”

To further improve its grade, we urge the Ontario government to continue its solid work on reducing internal trade barriers and provincial regulatory requirements. While Ontario has the second highest number of regulatory requirements after Quebec, it boasts the lowest number by far per capita (i.e., 86/10,000 population compared to the next best 133/10,000 population in Alberta).

We also encourage the government to publish regulatory documents in an open, machine-readable format (e.g., CSV, JSON, or XML), allowing for data to be freely accessed, used, analyzed, shared, and built on.

Businesses and people can tell the Ontario government about their specific red tape frustrations at https://www.ontario.ca/page/ministry-red-tape-reduction.

CFIB’s 2026 Red Tape Report Card grades:

*Due to a change in government in Newfoundland and Labrador, CFIB has assigned the province a status of “NA” (Not Applicable) in lieu of a grade in the political priority section. As a result, the province is also marked as “NA” for the overall grade.

For media inquiries 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 over 100,000 members across every industry and region, including over 39,000 in Ontario. 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.