2008 Spring Staff Update
Staff and members of the business community gathered on June 4th for the second annual Better Regulation update at Pier 21.
The half-day session got started with presentations on the progress of the initiative’s service standards, the forms project, process mapping training and the regulatory management policy.
The Honourable Jamie Muir, the minister responsible for the Better Regulation Initiative, was also able to join the session to thank department coordinators for their efforts, and to also challenge them to keep the momentum as the initiative moves closer to its goals for 2010.
In keeping with the session’s theme of Looking Through a Business Lens, participants got a taste of the regulatory burden faced by businesses with an exercise using BizPal, the new on-line tool that provides business start-up requirements from all three levels of government.
Leanne Hachey of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), and Brad Smith of Greater Halifax Partnership (GHP) were on hand to help bring more perspective to the exercise with antidotes of real business challenges.
The exercise provided a good introduction to BizPal and was also an eye opener to the numerous licences, permits and applications that need to be processed in order to get a business up and running. Try BizPal for yourself by doing the exercise (Jun 2008, 0.1MB PDF).
The day wrapped up with lunch and a key note address from Gilles Rhéaume of the Conference Board of Canada. Mr. Rhéaume discussed the connection between regulatory reform and sustainable prosperity in his presentation entitled: Reducing Red Tape without Eliminating Red Flags (Jun 2008, 0.7MB PDF).
