N.B Fails Red Tape Report, While N.S. Passes With Flying Colours
FREDERICTON–Sixty-three percent of Canadian business owners would not advise their children to start a business, given the current burden of regulations.
In short, if you love what you do, you better really love the paperwork.
A recent survey from The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) found nine out of ten businesses say it’s important for government to reduce red tape. But three-quarters are not confident governments are committed to doing so.
This year, the smallest Canadian businesses spent $7,310 per employee complying with government rules (roughly the same as previous years) and red tape is collectively costing Canadian businesses $11.3-billion each year.
Reducing bureaucratic obstacles was again the focus last week for CFIB, which delivered its 12th annual Red Tape Report Card, grading provinces in two areas.
An “accountability” section considered whether governments are measuring regulation and setting regulatory budgets. The “burden” section includes some broad indicators, such as the number of regulatory restrictions in each province.
Louis-Philippe Gauthier, the Atlantic Canadian representative at CFIB, says seven provinces achieved an “A” in regulatory accountability, including Nova Scotia.
New Brunswick didn’t score well in the category.
Gauthier says one main reason New Brunswick scored low is that the provincial government did not include any comprehensive measure of the regulatory burden that exists or provide reporting on the progress it’s taking to reduce it.
The province’s Regulatory Accountability and Reporting Act legislates that a public report be made available annually and should include the progress made to improve regulation and reduce burden, as well as the goals and objectives for the coming year.
Still, Gauthier adds New Brunswick has attempted to address regulatory burdens imposed on business by introducing some viable user options since CFIB started tracking progress on red tape annually.
New Brunswick’s 2009 adoption of BizPaL has offered an online, one-stop service for entrepreneurs to simplify finding information on business permits and licences from all levels of government.
Likewise, Business Navigators, which began before the pandemic and was offered through Opportunities NB, is a client management support program based upon a successful model implemented in Nova Scotia.
Gauthier says other provinces can learn from sharing best practices.
“That perspective is a good thing because it does reduce some of the effort, but at the same time it provides opportunities for comparison between the provinces,” says Gauthier. “Seeing how somebody tried it and doesn’t work–or, If something does work–at least you get the benefit from that learning.”
Nova Scotia highlighted for helping doctors
CFIB gave the Nova Scotia government its annual “Golden Scissors Award” this year for its Physician Administrative Burden Initiative, which started in 2019 by surveying doctors to help identify the overall red tape burden.
The survey found unnecessary red tape amounts to the equivalent of 1.5 million patient visits.
It also found that, on average, Nova Scotia physicians spent more than one full day per week, (10.6 hours) on administrative tasks — with much of that time devoted to medical forms, doctor’s notes, business operations, billing, licensing and privileging.
The province’s work with Doctors Nova Scotia on the initiative didn’t happen overnight, nor was it the first time the province had attempted to target areas of “over-bureaucracy.”
More broadly, the province had embarked on multiple initiatives to reduce red tape for businesses between 2000 and 2015.
It wasn’t until the creation of the Office of Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness in 2015–an independent, stand-alone office with a mandate to measure, assess and reduce unnecessary regulatory burden–that those initiatives saw improvement.
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island entered into an agreement that same year, becoming partners in a joint office with similar mandates to take action on regulatory reform.
Working with Nova Scotia’s Department of Health and Wellness, the office met with dozens of doctors, with the feedback resulting in a draft workplan for its project.
Nearly 500 Nova Scotia doctors answered the resulting survey, with participants estimating how much time they spent on administrative work, down to specific tasks, and how much of that time was considered unnecessary.
“With an example of doctors in Nova Scotia, there are some real gains to make by just taking another look at things and saying, — ‘Is the way things are being done sensible? Is that the best use of a doctor’s time?’ — and that can go for a number of fronts,” said Gauthier.
Tyler Mclean is a Huddle reporter based in Fredericton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].