I appreciate the response; however, the department is very aware that regulations on the floor of the House here are something to which we, as legislators, have absolutely zero impact on. We can talk about them in the House; we can make inferences; we can make suggestions; but we have no control over regulations. We do, however, have control over legislation. So, when legislation is brought before the House, it is deemed appropriate that proper consultation pursue. That proper consultation was reached out to all stakeholders.
Clearly, what we are hearing today is still that we are trying to match an act to regulations that are out of our control and we are somehow supposed to understand and agree to these changes to the act in the absence of full consultation, which makes it very problematic in context. So it is very difficult for me to move forward with this act as a Member because we are kind of doing things a little backwards. We are matching legislation to regulations and in the absence of consultation, in the absence of not having all stakeholders provide input, these changes to the act will affect small businesses. In fact, those businesses of less than 20 are going to be affected greatly in terms of extra costs to maintain certain occupational health and safety standards, and those costs will affect the businesses that affect Northerners that affect their way of life.
What has the department done to evaluate what is the financial impact of this act on small businesses of less than 20 people?