Red-tape creators win booby prize
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) kicks off its 2015 Red Tape Awareness Week, by announcing the winners of this year’s Paperweight Awards. The awards take aim at the government restrictions that have done the most to sticky the wickets of Canadian businesses in the past year.
While enjoying taking the time to lampoon the most egregious instances of overregulation, red tape is an issue the CFIB takes seriously.
“All that time that’s spent on these crazy rules or dealing with ways of compliance that are overly prescriptive is time that is not spent serving your customers, training your staff, [and] thinking through expansion plans for your business,” Laura Jones, CFIB executive vicepresident, said.
The CFIB’s most recent report, in 2013, showed regulation costs Canadian businesses $31 billion a year. That number is almost sure to rise when the CFIB rolls out updated regulation cost figures later this week. Here are the three weightiest paper-pushers of the year:
FEDERAL
Jean-Pierre Blais Despite a spirited push from Employment Minister, Jason Kenney and Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Chris Alexander, whose agencies teamed up to overhaul the much-maligned Temporary Foreign Worker Program, the federal paperweight crown went to Mr. Blais, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s chairman.
For small business headaches, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), which the CRTC was most directly responsible for, was the story of the year.
The legislation is designed to protect Canadians from spam emails, text messages and unwanted social media requests. It requires businesses to get continuing consent from clients or potential clients to send commercial electronic messages. The CRTC said as of Jan. 12, the Spam Reporting Centre has received 215,261 submissions.
While CASL does little to stop legitimate spam, because the main culprits are overseas outside the legislation’s enforcement area, the CFIB says it forces Canadian businesses to record and track consent for almost every email they send.
For typical businesses, which don’t send unsolicited messages, the CFIB contends it creates excessive red tape and can make basic communication with customers onerous.
CRTC spokesman Denis Carmel said the agency is simply enforcing the law. “If we’re guilty of implementing the law of the Parliament that protects Canadians’ privacy, we’re good with that,” he said.
The legislation caused initial confusion and then frustration among business owners. “Businesses really want to be in compliance with the various rules that affect them,” Ms. Jones said. “What’s challenging is when practically, it’s difficult to be in compliance.”
Ms. Jones pointed to a CFIB member who was looking for help from the government agency on how to be compliant, and was told to consult their legal affairs department. “Well, news flash, businesses with fewer than five employees don’t have legal affairs departments,” she said.
Mr. Carmel disagreed that the CRTC has not helped businesses adjust, pointing to a wealth of information on its website. “I think we’ve done the best we could in the circumstances to help them,” he said. For the CFIB, the legislation is rolls and rolls of red tape — not sending spam is simply responsible business. “No business owner in their right mind would spam their customers,” Ms. Jones said.
PROVINCIAL
Kevin Flynn For red tape at the provincial level, observers need look no further than Ontario. The province’s labour minister, Kevin Flynn, took home the prize for what the CFIB saw as an unhealthy distaste for standard-size paper.
For the Ministry of Labour, run-of-the-mill printer paper just doesn’t measure up. Instead, Ontario businesses are required to print and hang the Employment Standards Poster on legal-size paper or face a $360 fine.
Legal paper is slightly larger than standard paper at 8.5 x 14 inches, which requires many businesses to go out-of-house to get the print job done. “They’re not thinking of the practical reality of printing it,” Ms. Jones said.
To further question the usefulness of the poster, the CFIB pointed out that every Ontario business was noncompliant for a month last year when Ontario raised the minimum wage. The poster was not updated immediately and, as a result, all businesses were in violation, the federation said.
The CFIB admits Mr. Flynn did not create the “silly rule,” but says he can and should do away with it.
Change may be on the way. Ministry of Labour Spokesman Craig MacBride said that the ministry has been directed to design a more business-friendly poster.
The CFIB will surely welcome the decision. “We’ll give [Mr. Flynn] the real compliments when he fixes it,” Ms. Jones said.
MUNICIPAL
Luc Ferrandez Two Montreal borough mayors were in the running for the local level paperweight championship. François Croteau made the list of finalists for being so fed-up with drivethrus that he banned district restaurants and pharmacies from creating new ones. His aversion to fast food saw him fall just short of the title.
The CFIB instead tapped the borough mayor of Plateau Mont-Royal, Luc Ferrandez, as champ. Mr. Ferrandez distanced himself from other municipal competition and angered borough business owners by banning PVC plastic chairs from outdoor patios.
A mainstay on summer patios across the country for their low price tag, resilience to inclement weather and easy storage, business owners on Montreal’s Plateau are now being forced to look to other options.
Christine Gosselin, a borough councillor in Montreal, defended the decision. “The city sometimes has trouble looking its best,” she said on behalf of Projet Montréal, the political party Mr. Ferrandez heads. “Sometimes you have to set the bar at a certain height.”
Typical PVC chairs can retail for less than $10, while patio chairs made from other materials can be considerably more expensive. It’s not clear whether or not Mr. Ferrandez’s paperweight award will meet his PVC-free esthetic criteria.