Making businesses in West Central Alberta and elsewhere more competitive is one of the principal goals of a newly formed provincial task force, says chairman and Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Ty Lund.The Red Tape Reduction Task Force was announced last week. As well as Lund, the task force includes MLA Robin Campbell, Dr. Neil Brown, Kyle Fawcett and Art Johnson.The task force will be consulting with business organizations, including chambers of commerce, over the next two months, gathering input about current regulations and suggestions for change, said Lund.矛We want to make sure that small businesses can be competitive,卯 said Lund. 矛When you consider the number of small businesses in the province, they really are the engine that drives the economy.矛What we are going to try to do is find out where small business has a problem, all the way from startup. I've always maintained that in those kinds of regulation we should be looking at what is the desired outcome and leave it up to the business to decide how to get there.卯Over a third of people working in Alberta work for small business, he said.The task force will be gathering input in a number of ways.矛This is really going to be a bottom's up process,卯 he said. 矛We are going to talk to the chambers of commerce and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and others.矛What I'm going to do right away is send a memo to all MLAs and ask them to contact their local chambers and see if the business people in their communities have problems with specific provincial government regulations and then we would look at those.卯The Alberta government has recently set up a parallel committee to look at provincial industries and how regulations may be hurting their competitiveness.矛We will be looking at some of those larger issues as well, but our real focus will be small business,卯 Lund said. 矛We are going to also be looking to see how Alberta stacks up against Saskatchewan and B.C. We are going to also stretch out and look at Ontario and Manitoba as well.卯As Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA since 1989, Lund says he has already seen examples of regulations that aren't necessarily great for business.矛One prime one dealt with West Fraser in Sundre,卯 he said. 矛Because they have a boiler, they have to have a Class 3 steam engineer on site all the time even though it's not a high-pressure vessel. That's an example of a very big cost.卯The task force is scheduled to release its final report, including recommendations, by the end of March. Lund says he hopes to make that deadline, although that will depend in large measure on the amount of input the task force receives.矛There are something like 1,100 regulations out there,卯 he said. 矛Some regulations have led to the creation of policies and I suspect we will find quite often that it's an interpretation of a regulation that creates a policy that may not be all that necessary.卯While the task force will be making recommendations for changes to regulations, it will certainly not be calling for the elimination of all regulations, he said.矛We are not saying we are going to get rid of all regulations, of course, because good regulations are what make for good business,卯 he said. 矛We have to be able to sustain the environment and have health and safety protected, so there will still be regulations. We want to make sure there's no regulations that don't add any value.卯Sundre Chamber of Commerce president Sherry Tytkanych says she is pleased to hear the task force will be consulting chambers as part of the input-gathering process.矛I think it would be a help to our businesses to get rid of any unnecessary regulations,卯 she said.
