Regulatory Reform: An Introduction

In a narrow sense, the thirteen essays included in this two-part symposium were inspired by the release in 1981 of the Economic Council of Canada's report, Reforming Regulation.'In a broader sense, they Were inspired by two almost contradictory observations concerning regulatory reform in Canada.On the one hand, during the past decade regulatory reform has been the focus of intensive academic and political study and debate.Indeed, apart from constitutional reform, it is difficult to identify a subject that has attracted so much attention.On the other hand, despite this attention, we observe an extraordinary absence of change.While there are notable exceptions, it is certainly fair to say that the decade has not been marked by major changes in the structure of regulation in Canada.Furthermore, this absence of political action is accompanied by a sense that, despite the intensity of study, some of the most fundamental issues remain largely untouched.The essays that follow respond to these observations in two ways.First, they shed light on certain of the fundamental issues that have to date attracted less attention than is warranted by their central role in informed anal-@