The promise of cutting red tape made by the provincial government in 2018 was discussed at length among small-business owners and developers at a meeting in south-end Barrie, Friday afternoon.
Prabmeet Sarkaria, who is the associate minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction, was joined by local MPPs Andrea Khanjin (Barrie-Innisfil) and Doug Downey (Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte) at a roundtable discussion about reducing excessive government regulations.
The meeting, which was held at the Barrie Chamber of Commerce offices on Commerce Park Drive, saw Sarkaria speak to small-business owners and developers about their concerns surrounding getting work completed.
Sarkaria told BarrieToday there was some frustration among those in attendance, and why it was important for him to come to Barrie and listen to those concerns.
“It is all about getting out and consulting and listening to the struggles, whether it is from a small-business lens or how Ontario can serve businesses better,” Sarkaria said. “They are the ones who are helping to create opportunities in communities like Barrie and others across the province.”
This week, Sarkaria tabled Bill 132, which would see more than 80 proposed actions to eliminate unnecessary or outdated rules, and streamline regulations that need updating.
The Progressive Conservatives say The Better for People, Smarter for Business Act should help reduce duplicate levels red tape and dealing with unnecessary wait times for success for their business.
“We recognize that small businesses should spend their time, not navigating complex, regulatory frameworks, but rather spend their time investing in their communities and businesses,” Sarkaria said. “We have made a commitment to save businesses $400 million by June 2020. If this bill passes, we’ll be at about $338 million.”
Andy Thomson not only runs Thomson Architecture, but is also on the committee for the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA). He was on hand today to hear what the minister had to say and provide feedback if necessary.
“I thought it was really positive they are looking at these things and asking for specific examples of stuff they can address and deal with,” Thomson said. “It is very important to be engaged with small-business owners and developers.”
The OAA estimates that the monthly indirect costs of site-plan review to municipalities, developers, builders and end-users amounts to $100 million per month. Should the average site-plan review application take three to nine months to process and approve, the total costs of delay to stakeholders would amount to somewhere in the range of $300 million to $900 million in Ontario per year.
Thomson says red tape isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just depends on how it is used.
“Red tape sounds like something terrible, but not so much,” he said. “Regulations make sense if you can efficiently get through them. The problem is most are more like a ball of red tape that you can’t work out. That is where the frustration sets in.”
Aerarium Development Corporation president Stephen Sperling told BarrieToday he has dealt with the red tape and sees it as a waste of time and resources.
“I was to have a meeting with the deputy minister of the environment," he said. "It took six months to have it set up and then I realized, why go to their office when I can save the carbon and call them on the phone?
“The date and time were set and it took a week to change that from a live conference to a telephone conference," Sperling added. "Lots of wasted time in there that is just unnecessary.”
