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Nova Scotia’s Red Tape Price Tag: $770 Million a Year |
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Written by CFIB
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Monday, 12 December 2005 |
Halifax – Complying with countless government rules – at all levels of government - costs businesses in Nova Scotia $770 million a year, according to a report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
This estimate includes everything from the time and money it takes for a business to figure out how high it can hang its sign, to complying with federal privacy laws, filling out tax forms, training employees on the rules and getting the endless streams of permits and licenses required to run any business.
“That’s about 13 per cent of our entire provincial budget. It’s more than the budget for the Department of Community Services,” said Leanne Hachey, CFIB’s Director of Provincial Affairs.
Nationally, the cost is $33 billion annually: enough to send 425,000 Canadian students to university and cover their room and board for four years. The tally for the Atlantic region is a staggering $2 billion – more than the two ‘waves’ of the Atlantic Innovation Fund.
And the province’s smallest businesses shoulder the biggest chunk of the burden.
“Businesses with fewer than five employees – about 70 per cent of businesses in Nova Scotia – pay nearly $5,000 a year per employee to comply with the all these rules”, Hachey said.
The report, Rated R: Prosperity Restricted by Red Tape, concludes some regulation is necessary, but too much of it limits consumer choices, raises prices, frustrates entrepreneurship and reduces productivity and innovation.
“We need some rules to ensure safe, clean and competitive communities,” Hachey said, “but at what point do we say enough? When do we say let’s stop introducing rules that don’t make sense, that have little to do with making communities better and allow businesses to spend more of their time and money creating jobs.”
While CFIB has put a dollar and time cost to regulation, few Canadian jurisdictions have done the same. This is the very reason why countless government attempts to address red tape have failed.
“Businesses keep telling us that the regulatory burden is the second biggest issue they face, after taxation. Yet, unlike taxation, there’s no public debate or review before more rules are added,” Hachey said.
“What we need is accountability. We need to know just how many rules we have, how many we truly need and have a plan to get rid of the rest. This means measuring the burden, setting clear goals for reduction, and letting the public know whether these goals are being met.
“Nova Scotia has started moving in this direction – but we want them to go all the way. Anything less just isn’t good enough,” Hachey said.
The full report is available at www.cfib.ca |
