Province Marks Red Tape Awareness Week

The Province continues to reduce red tape in healthcare, housing and to support businesses as it marks the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s Red Tape Awareness Week from January 29 to February 2.

“We’ve taken the task of removing red tape head on,” said Premier Tim Houston, Minister responsible for the Office of Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness. “This common-sense solution allows government to be more efficient, focused and effective, especially in our healthcare system where we’re actively identifying red tape and getting rid of it.”

The week highlights the importance of regulatory accountability and celebrates the many ways that governments are reducing red tape for businesses and citizens.

Recent red tape cutting initiatives include:

• cutting 250,000 hours of time that would have been spent by physicians on complex forms and unnecessary processes, including limiting the use of sick notes through the Medical Certificates for Employee Absence Act
• building homes faster through amendments to the Housing in the Halifax Regional Municipality Act and the HRM Charter, setting the stage for one of Canada’s first trusted partner programs to expedite the development approval process
• expanding the Province’s extended producer responsibility program to include packaging, paper products and materials in the residential blue bag recycling program, making manufacturers accountable for end-of-life waste management and significantly saving costs for municipalities
• eliminating the penalty fee for companies reinstating their registration with the Registry of Joint Stock Companies
• introducing software to support the administration of the International Fuel Tax Agreement, which allows commercial motor carriers to register in one U.S state or Canadian province and have tax assessments paid out to all participating areas according to their fair share.

Quotes:

“Our office is highly committed to ensuring our regulatory environment is part of the solution in addressing the urgent issues in our province. I’m proud of the progress our team has made with our partners this past year. We’ll continue to press forward and deliver more solutions, together, in 2024.”
— Fred Crooks, Chief Regulatory Officer, Office of Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness

“Reducing unnecessary physician administrative burden is making Nova Scotia a more attractive place to practise medicine. It’s making a difference for physicians already working in our province and it will give our province an advantage when attracting future recruits.”
— Dr. Colin Audain, President, Doctors Nova Scotia

Quick Facts:

• last year, the government set a target to reduce 400,000 hours of red tape for doctors by the end of 2024; by end of 2023, 250,000 hours were saved, achieving nearly two-thirds of the target

Additional Resources:

More information on savings to businesses and citizens through regulatory reform can be found in the Office of Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness’ 2023 Annual Report: https://beta.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/documents/1-2927/annual-report-2023-office-regulatory-affairs-and-service-effectiveness-en.pdf

Nova Scotians can share their feedback on red tape at: https://beta.novascotia.ca/share-feedback-red-tape

Office of Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness: http://novascotia.ca/regulatoryopportunity/

Office of Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness on X (formerly Twitter): https://www.X.com/NS_RegReform