The Canadian Federation of Independent Business issued their Red Tape report cards to all the provinces and territories across the country.
For the seventh consecutive year, BC received an A grade and is one of two provinces to accomplish this feat with the other being Quebec.
On the flip side, Alberta and the Northwest Territories recorded failing grades the past two years
The provincial government has done a lot of things right.
“You know, BC deserves a lot of credit for having stronger leadership on this issue, they deserve credit for having a comprehensive measure on this issue and they also deserve credit for having a commitment to controlling the cost and the amount of red tape and excessive regulation,” says Richard Truscott, CFIB BC Vice-President.
He adds one of the things the province could do is implement the one-for-one rule where any new regulation brought in means another one has to come out.
While this might be exciting news on the surface, places like Prince George need to follow the province’s example.
“That is something we ought to bear in mind, this is only one level of government and yes getting an A is good news but Prince George also needs to step up and make sure it’s got the same sort of focus on cutting red tape for small business.”
Even though provinces like BC continue to lead the way, several provinces across Canada continue to struggle in their efforts to reduce red tape.
A good example of this is what is happening in the Maritime’s were places like Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island continue to wallow with grades of C-.
At the end of the day, Truscott says it comes down political leadership.
“If there are political will and the commitment to do it, it can pay off, this is something that governments should commit to for a lot of reasons and this is a low-cost way of supporting your economy, freeing up entrepreneurs so rather than ticking boxes on a form and surfing websites for information or sitting on hold waiting for an answer from government this will mean that entrepreneurs are spending time building their business focused on doing what they love to do.”
BC has shown great leadership among the provinces on this issue for a while now and some of that is starting to payoff elsewhere.
“We can learn a lot from BC and I think other provinces can learn from BC in the regulatory reform front. Definitely, Alberta and many other provinces and places like Quebec and Manitoba and Nova Scotia have all learned some things from BC’s leadership.”
“That is part of being a leader.”
The CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with over 109,000 members.
This is week is also Red Tape Awareness Week, which runs until Friday.