Economic News/Trends and Analysis — March 10, 2010

XBRL Canada Welcomes the Announcement of the Red Tape Reduction Commission

TORONTO, March 10 /CNW/ - The announcement in the Federal Budget Document tabled in the House of Commons on March 4 that includes a Red Tape Reduction Commission is a welcome move for Canadian business. The complexities of compliance mandated by government agencies are substantial and often redundant.

At present, companies who file with the federal departments and agencies must file a diverse number of different reports, usually in different formats. The inefficiency of this approach costs reporting companies substantial dollars in unnecessary expense for systems maintenance, multiple data input and completion of various forms.

Leveraging the efficiencies of a unified system employing XBRL could save considerable dollars. It is important to note that XBRL is an open standard currently in various stages of use worldwide.

Over twenty countries have implemented programs to reduce the compliance burden and red tape for companies reporting to government agencies. In several of these countries, XBRL is well recognized as an important part of achieving efficiency within these programs.

The Netherlands, for example, recognized this several years ago and has been implementing XBRL throughout government filings. The estimated value of reducing reporting burdens is approximately (euro)400 million per annum. In addition, they say full implementation of XBRL, "with its wide incorporation across relevant financial accounting software packages will result in substantial time savings to business - up to 33% compared to the time required for traditional annual accounts." A similar program is underway in Australia and under consideration in other countries.

The adoption of XBRL for standardizing the reporting of data is a feasible and cost-effective way to achieve the objective of substantially reducing the cost of compliance by Canadian companies. XBRL Canada will welcome the opportunity to present the efficiencies of XBRL to the Red Tape Reduction Commission as part of its initiative.

XBRL Canada is a not-for-profit consortium, funded and supported by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, formed to foster and encourage the use of XBRL for greater efficiency in Canadian Business.

For further information: XBRL Canada, Gerald Trites, Project Director, (416) 602-3931, Email: gtrites@xbrl.ca

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Updated 15:57 CST, February 11, 2012  

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