Nova Scotia gets “D” on regulatory reform
Posted Jan 17, 2012 02:40:09 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The regulatory reform process in Nova Scotia is taking a shot from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
The Federation’s annual Red Tape Report gave the province a “D”, a significant drop from last year’s “B”.
“For the past year virtually nothing of substance has happened to tackle the big picture issue of regulation,” said Atlantic VP of the CFIB Leanne Hachey. “There has been some progress on smaller initiatives and we certainly want to give those initiatives credit, but there’s been no big picture approach to tackling the burden of regulation.”
Essentially, the grades are based on how well a government deals with regulatory reform and what it’s doing to keep red tape at a minimum.
The CFIB cites several problems that led to the near-failing grade, including the province introducing what it calls “questionable” regulations last year including first contract arbitration, scrap metal legislation, the ski helmet law and the one-meter rule required between cars and bikes.
Hachey explains red tape can be anything from poor government customer service to bad attitude.
“…to lack of courtesy, to not meeting timelines, to sitting on the phone for hours at end getting different answers to the same questions, to filling out endless amounts of paper work, to not being informed what new rules are coming down the pipe,” she says.
She says they understand there are problems that need to be solved in the province.
“We are saying that some of the solutions we’re coming up with don’t solve the problem, or create a whole bunch of paperwork for no good reason,” she explains.
Hachey adds one-off task forces that eliminate “stupid” rules don’t help because as soon as those task forces are done, new red tape pops up.
