Ontario politicians debate best ways to reduce red tape

Saturday, June 2, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

There are conflicting reports from Queen’s Park about how much the provincial government is doing to cut farmers’ red tape burden.

Earlier this week, Progressive Conservative agriculture critic Ernie Hardman, the Oxford MPP, fired a shot over the Liberal government’s bow by declaring the red tape problem the agricultural industry faces is “just as bad as ever but this government continues to ignore the problems in rural Ontario.”

Asked to respond, Agriculture Minister Ted McMeekin says in an email that they’ve reduced the regulatory burden by almost 30 per cent. Regulatory reform is a priority for “our government and we continue to move forward with our stakeholders through the Open For Business consultations.” A meeting was held earlier this year and another one is planned for next month.

Hardeman says the PCs have been trying to reduce red tape for agriculture and all small businesses for a long time. In talking to people, he says their number one concern is red tape and that’s “government standing in the road of something happening as opposed to helping it along.”

One thing that must be done to correct the problem has been known for about a year and that’s introducing a one-window approach for government services. When you want to build a barn you shouldn’t have to contact the ministries of environment, agriculture and natural resources for approval and then also have to get a municipal building permit, Hardeman says. “All these things have to be done with different ministries as opposed to just being able to talk to the government and get the approvals you need to proceed” in one place.

Hardeman says the PC’s idea is for farmers to just go through the agriculture ministry for their approvals and that ministry would deal with all the others. This approach wouldn’t take away the need of the environment ministry, for example, to look at the environmental issues in a proposal.

When the applicant hears back from the agriculture ministry, all the permits from the government would be complete, he says. “It would be just one permit that includes all the provincial issues.”

In addition to barn building, the one-window approval approach could work for “any activity that farmers or the agri-business community needs approval for,” he notes.

McMeekin says instead of a one-window approach, “I support a no wrong-window approach and we’ve made a lot of progress in this direction.” The agriculture minister explains that’s about changing attitudes across government and the various ministries and getting them to apply a rural lens to government policy. BF