Ontario’s Minister of Red Tape Reduction is working to ensure business owners are not drowning in needless paperwork.
Prabmeet Sarkaria says the current system doesn’t make sense.
“Whether it’s employment standards, the toxic reductions act, the planning act, environmental assessments and more. All are being modernized and streamlined to be more effective with less cost and less delay.”
Sarkaria says changes being considered include getting rid of ideas such as the need to tell the government about $50,000 commercial property upgrades, a law dating back to 1991.
“But these days a $50,000 project could be as minor as updating bathrooms, sinks and toilets in an employee washroom. We believe the government shouldn’t be the business of requiring notifications for such small projects.”
Sarkaria says “manufacturers have told us that this kind of time and money wasting requirement is something they don’t face in competing jurisdictions, like the United States.”
He adds the government wants ideas from business owners on ways to simplify old, outdated rules.
In order to gather the information from business owners, the government has set up a new website, which you can find at https://www.ontario.ca/page/cutting-red-tape
