The government has emphasized the need for Ontario to be ‘Open For Business’ and instituted a government-wide red-tape and burden reduction initiative to support economic growth and foster enhanced interaction between government and business.
The AGCO already has a long history of working to support these goals by continually searching for ways to reduce administrative burdens for businesses and by deploying regulatory approaches to support responsible economic development. The shift towards a more risk- and outcome-based regulatory framework in the gaming sector, for example, is intended to allow operators and businesses more flexibility to adapt to marketplace changes and ultimately to increase their competitiveness without compromising the AGCO’s regulatory work.
In 2018-2019, the AGCO designed and implemented a similar approach for the retail sale of cannabis in Ontario, assuring effectiveness but avoiding unnecessarily burdensome regulatory oversight from the outset. The AGCO also continues to build strategic partnerships and share information with other government ministries and agencies to strengthen collaborative and streamlined approaches. This includes effective relationships with the Ministry of the Attorney General, Ministry of Finance, Ontario Cannabis Store, OLG and the LCBO.
The concept of reducing ‘red tape’ and burden has been a driver for many of the regulatory and internal reforms implemented at the AGCO over the last 15 years. ‘Value for Money’ is embedded into the organization’s fabric and strategic plan. The AGCO continued to work with stakeholders on a number of initiatives in 2018-2019 as part of its ongoing regulatory modernization efforts, including changes to enhance the benefits of charitable gaming. In addition, the AGCO has launched an internal Value Task Force to explore ways to work Better, Faster, Smarter by reducing the regulatory burden for our regulated entities, provide flexibility and enhanced service delivery to our customers and create efficiencies to support the government’s regulatory burden reduction targets.