TRUMP REQUIRES ALL REGULATORY AGENCIES TO ELIMINATE TWO EXISTING REGULATIONS FOR EVERY NEW ONE.

order that requires all regulatory agencies to eliminate two existing regulations for every new one they adopt. To prevent the repeal of only regulations that impose little cost, the savings they bring must be at least as great as the costs resulting from the new regulation. Trump also ordered a temporary stop to the hiring of all new government employees including those in regulatory agencies. In his first budget he proposed severe spending cuts for regulatory agencies, such as the 31 per cent facing the Environmental Protection named Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS Act), which will return to politicians the right to approve or reject any new regulations that have an economic impact on the economy greater than $100 million a year. Even before the election, in 2016 the Republican majority in the House of Representatives introduced the Agency Accountability Act, which will require all regulatory agencies to transmit to the treasury fines and fees they have collected from the public, and which reduces their financial resources and incentives to impose fees and fines.

At the core of these reforms is the desire to return the regulatory process to elected politicians and away from unelected bureaucrats in regulatory agencies who, according to Senator Mike Lee from Utah, have created the conditions where: “Today, the vast majority of federal “laws” — upwards of 95 per cent — are not passed by the House and Senate and signed by the president as the Constitution directs; they are imposed unilaterally by unelected Executive Branch bureaucrats.”

Many Canadians will be appalled by the proposed regulatory reforms in the United States, fearing that polluters will again bring skies darkened by smoke and fish killed in rivers. These concerns are not warranted. The proposed U.S. reforms will not repeal such clearly beneficial regulations favoured by the public.

They will instead focus on regulations that bring ephemeral benefits, like those coming from regulations that are highly uncertain, like those aimed at the prevention of global warming and financial instability. The assessment of the net benefits from such regulations will again be made by politicians who reflect the values of the public and not by unelected bureaucrats who have chosen to work in regulatory agencies to advance leftist ideological goals.

Even if Canadians do not like American voters’ instructions to their politicians on regulatory reform, the failure to consider its implications will affect seriously all of the economic and social programs advocated in the 2017 budget. Regulatory reform should be on Canada’s agenda for public discussion and serious political consideration. exceeding $550 million.

If a number of other optimistic assumptions in the analysis — regarding operating and capital costs, as well as performance metrics that ignore Pickering’s dismal track record on meeting its own production forecasts — were updated, they would also show that Pickering is more likely to be a drain on ratepayers. Yet, neither OPG or the Ontario Energy Board, the provincial rate regulator, has asked that the planning agency rerun the model in an effort to see if extending the life of Pickering still makes economic sense. Instead, the power system will be spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the next few years on necessary upgrades to keep it running.

Furthermore, IESO admits that generation from Pickering would only be needed during a few hours of “peak” demand each year. Yet, due to the nature of nuclear technology that makes it difficult to turn on and off, the reactors would produce unneeded power throughout the year and contribute to Ontario’s ongoing power surplus.

The economic argument to keep Pickering open past 2020 relies on an analysis that requires all of the stars to align. Unfortunately for ratepayers, since that analysis was completed, the stars have moved further apart. If the province wants to find ways to legitimately reduce costs in the province’s electricity sector, it could start by dumping Pickering.