Business
Canada should match or eclipse Trump’s red-tape cutting plan
From the Fraser Institute
With all eyes focused on WWT (World War Tariff), another Trump initiative was quietly put in place last week in one of the now-signature Trump “flood the zone” initiative waves.
On Jan. 31, the Trump administration published an executive order (EO) titled “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation,” and as regulatory reform initiatives go, well, it’s every anti-regulatory analyst’s dream as “each new regulation issued, at least 10 prior regulations be identified for elimination.”
For reference, one of Canada’s strongest regulatory-reform efforts (in British Columbia back in 2001) only called for a 2-for-1 ratio. Although B.C.’s effort did somewhat foreshadow Trump’s, in that it created something of a DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) when the B.C. government appointed an actual minister of deregulation to oversee the effort rather than leaving it to the bureaucracy to reform itself. And it worked. By 2004, 37 per cent of regulatory requirements in B.C. had been eliminated (exceeding the initial one-third target).
Trump’s new plan is less explicit in defining regulations, but it makes sure that new regulations cost less than the 10 regulations they replace. “For fiscal year 2025,” reads the EO, “the heads of all agencies are directed to ensure that the total incremental cost of all new regulations, including repealed regulations, being finalized this year, shall be significantly less than zero, and any new incremental costs associated with new regulations shall, to the extent permitted by law, be offset by the elimination of existing costs associated with at least 10 prior regulations.”
And Trump’s plan will put regulators in government agencies on a permanent diet, as a “total amount of incremental costs… will be allowed for each agency in issuing new regulations and repealing regulations for each fiscal year after fiscal year 2025.”
Why does this matter to Canadians?
Because, unlike those few years of B.C. regulatory reform, Canada has been wrapping itself in regulatory red-tape for decades, making our economy less competitive globally and with the United States. Between 2006 to 2018, the number of restrictive regulations in Canada grew from about 66,000 to 72,000. And according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the cost of regulation from all three levels of government to Canadian businesses totalled $38.8 billion in 2020, for a total of 731 million hours—the equivalent of nearly 375,000 fulltime jobs.
Clearly, Canada has a regulatory problem—our governments generate seemingly endless spools of regulatory red tape, which keep Canadian businesses tangled in inefficiency, wasted labour and non-competitiveness. President Trump’s new regulatory reform initiative will further increase the “red-tape gap” between Canada and the U.S.
Policymakers in Ottawa and the provinces would do well to learn about Canada’s experiences with deregulatory programs and strive to match—or beat—the new U.S. regulatory reform efforts before a massive lack of regulatory competitiveness becomes a serious problem, adding insult to injury on top of World War Tariff.
Kenneth P. Green
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
A resurfaced 2018 video from a Minneapolis-area TV station shows how Somali scammers allegedly bilked Minnesota out of millions of dollars for services that they never provided.
Independent journalist Nick Shirley touched off a storm on social media Friday after he posted a photo of one day-care center, which displayed a banner calling it “The Greater Learing Center” on X, along with a 42-minute video that went viral showing him visiting that and other day-care centers. The surveillance video, which aired on Fox 9 in 2018 after being taken in 2015, showed parents taking kids into the center, then leaving with them minutes later, according to Fox News.
“They were billing too much, they went up to high,” Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman told Fox 9 in 2018. “It’s hard to imagine they were serving that many people. Frankly if you’re going to cheat, cheat little, because if you cheat big, you’re going to get caught.”
Dear Readers:
As a nonprofit, we are dependent on the generosity of our readers.
Please consider making a small donation of any amount here.
Thank you!
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was accused of engaging in “systemic” retaliation against whistleblowers in a Nov. 30 statement by state employees. Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson announced on Dec. 18 that the amount of suspected fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid program had reached over $9 billion.
After Shirley’s video went viral, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the agency was already sending additional resources in a Sunday post on X, citing the case surrounding Feeding Our Future, which at one point accused the Minnesota government of racism during litigation over the suspension of funds after earlier allegations of fraud.
KSTP reported that the Quality Learning Center, one of the centers visited by Shirley, had 95 citations for violations from one Minnesota agency between 2019 to 2023.
President Donald Trump announced in a Nov. 21 post on Truth Social that he would end “Temporary Protected Status” for Somalis in the state in response to allegations of welfare fraud and said that the influx of refugees had “destroyed our country.”
Business
Disclosures reveal Minnesota politician’s husband’s companies surged thousands-fold amid Somali fraud crisis
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s latest financial disclosures reveal seemingly sudden wealth accumulation inside her household, even as Minnesota grapples with revelations of massive fraud that may have siphoned more than $9 billion from government programs. The numbers, drawn from publicly filed congressional reports, show two companies tied to Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, surging in value at a pace that raises more questions than answers.
According to the filings, Rose Lake Capital LLC — a business advisory firm Mynett co-founded in 2022 — jumped from an assessed range of $1 to $1,000 in 2023 to between $5 million and $25 million in 2024. Even using the most conservative assumptions allowed under Congress’ broad valuation ranges, the company’s value would have increased thousands of times in a single year. The firm advertises itself as a facilitator of “deal-making, mergers and acquisitions, banking, politics and diplomacy.”
Archived versions of Rose Lake’s website once showcased an eye-catching lineup of political heavyweights: former Ambassador to Bahrain Adam Ereli, former Sen. Max Baucus, and prominent Democratic National Committee alumni William Derrough and Alex Hoffman. But as scrutiny surrounding Omar intensifies — particularly over whether her political network intersected with sprawling fraud schemes exposed in Minnesota — the company has quietly scrubbed its online footprint. Names and biographies of team members have vanished, and the firm has not clarified whether these figures remain involved. Omar’s office offered no comment when asked to explain the company’s sudden growth or the removal of its personnel listings.
Mynett, Omar’s third husband, has long been a controversial presence in her political orbit, but the dramatic swell in his business holdings comes at a moment when trust in Minnesota’s oversight systems is already badly shaken. Federal and state investigators now estimate that fraud involving pandemic-era and nonprofit programs may exceed $9 billion, a staggering figure for a state often held up as a model of progressive governance. For many residents, the revelation that Omar’s household wealth soared during the same period only deepens skepticism about who benefited from Minnesota’s expansive social-spending apparatus.
The financial story doesn’t stop with Rose Lake. A second Mynett-linked entity, ESTCRU LLC — a boutique winery registered in Santa Rosa, California — reported an assessed value of $1 million to $5 million in 2024. Just a year earlier, Omar disclosed its worth at $15,000 to $50,000. Despite the dramatic valuation spike, ESTCRU’s online storefront does not appear to function, its last social media activity dates back to early 2023, and the phone number listed on its website is no longer in service. As with Rose Lake, Omar’s office declined to comment on the winery’s sudden rise in reported value.
The House clerk has yet to release 2025 disclosures, leaving unanswered how these companies are performing today — and how such explosive growth materialized in the first place.
Alberta Next Panel calls to reform how Canada works
Canadian government launches trial version of digital ID for certain licenses, permits
Georgia county admits illegally certifying 315k ballots in 2020 presidential election
End Supply Management—For the Sake of Canadian Consumers
-
Business10 hours agoICYMI: Largest fraud in US history? Independent Journalist visits numerous daycare centres with no children, revealing massive scam
-
Daily Caller2 days agoUS Halts Construction of Five Offshore Wind Projects Due To National Security
-
Daily Caller2 days agoWhile Western Nations Cling to Energy Transition, Pragmatic Nations Produce Energy and Wealth
-
Alberta2 days agoAlberta Next Panel calls for less Ottawa—and it could pay off
-
Bruce Dowbiggin1 day agoBe Careful What You Wish For In 2026: Mark Carney With A Majority
-
Energy2 days agoWhy Japan wants Western Canadian LNG
-
Business2 days agoMainstream media missing in action as YouTuber blows lid off massive taxpayer fraud
-
Business2 days agoLand use will be British Columbia’s biggest issue in 2026