New Brunswick gets C+ in Red Tape Reduction for Business
Moncton – The New Brunswick government has received a C+ in the 2017 Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) annual red tape report card.
The report card grades the provinces and territories on their commitment to red tape reduction and accountability. Released during Red Tape Awareness Week, it looks at measurement, public reporting and political leadership.
CFIB says small business owners deal with all kinds of regulations and have no objection to rules that are needed and administered fairly, but too much regulation or regulations that are poorly communicated and administered can quickly turn into something regressive and destructive, hence the term “red tape.”
“We are encouraged by the New Brunswick government’s leadership in fighting red tape,” says CFIB’s director of provincial affairs Louis-Philippe Gauthier, in a release. “However, while government has adopted the Regulatory Accountability and Reporting Act, the baselines by which to set red tape targets remain to be established.”
Yet the organization says it expects to see improvement in the future, with a project underway by Service New Brunswick to benchmark and review internal processes that hamper business productivity.
As for the other Atlantic provinces, Nova Scotia received a B, Prince Edward Island got a “C+” and Newfoundland and Labrador received a “C.”