Making It Easier
The Better Regulation Initiative is working on three key areas to make it easier for
business to do business.
- Reducing the paperwork burden
- Providing one point access for business start-up requirements
- Improving turnaround times for licences and permits
Reducing the paperwork burden by 20%
To estimate the paperwork burden, the Better Regulation Initiative Index was created. The index found that Nova Scotia businesses spent an estimated 615,000 hours on regulatory paper work required by the province from April 2005 to March 2006.
After three years, the government of Nova Scotia has reduced the paperwork burden on business by 14.8%. That's a drop of more than 91,000 hours annually, valued at almost $2 million in savings. The increase in momentum, from 2.5% to 5.8% to 6.5% in consecutive years will help reach the 20% target by 2010.
Learn more about how the Index works.
Learn how some business types are affected by paperwork.
BizPal
This free, online service offers business people single-point access to determine the permits licences required by municipal, provincial and federal governments. Nova Scotia is the first Atlantic province to partner with the federal government to offer this service to business.
New Glasgow and Halifax were the first two municipal partners to participate in the BizPal system, which covers at least 350 of the most common industry sectors. As of June 2009, eleven municipalities had joined the online service, making it available to over 57% of Nova Scotia businesses. Five more municipalities are working with the provincial government employees to prepare their information to joining BizPal.
Service Standards
A significant target for Better Regulation is a commitment to process most licences and permits issued by provincial departments within 10 business days by 2010. This complements efforts to reduce the paperwork by tackling the time business waits to hear the results of their applications.
Recognizing that not all licences and permits should be turned around in 10 days, Cabinet approved alternative standards for those that will always require extra time to protect citizens, communities and the environment.
As of April 2009, 80% of licenses and permits met their service standards.
To learn more about service standards, click here.
