Improving New Brunswick’s regulatory system brings many benefits. For example, red tape reduction efforts can relieve administrative burdens on small and medium sized businesses that cannot afford to be mired in paperwork or forced to adhere to complex and confusing rules. This can have a negative effect on productivity, growth, and ultimately, profitability. By reducing red tape through reforming our regulatory system, we believe our businesses will be able to thrive now and in the future.
“It is really great to see some tangible progress happening on regulatory reform in New Brunswick. Watching the Smart Regulation initiative unfold over the past couple of years has been positive, and will definitely provide a much needed boost for business productivity in the province. And since we know that the overall burden of regulation disproportionately impacts smaller businesses, the product of these efforts will be significant.”
Richard Dunn, Director, Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB)
In response to citizen’s concerns, the Department of Finance made changes to regulations involving the private sale of motor vehicles. Amendments to General Regulation 97-28 under the Harmonized Sales Tax significantly reduced the amount of red tape that New Brunswickers encounter when they register motor vehicles that were purchased through private sale. Today, New Brunswickers can register their vehicles at a Service New Brunswick office without having to first obtain an appraisal to establish its value, saving them an extra step in the registration process.
The Department of Finance reached out to convenience store owners in New Brunswick through the Atlantic Convenience Store Association. Convenience store owners had a number of regulatory concerns including issues with reporting sales of taxable propane; retailers were required to submit monthly returns and remit taxes that often represented very small amounts. After analyzing the issue, changes were made to the reporting structure. These changes that will see an 87% reduction in the number of retailers filing monthly propane returns, alleviating some of the paperwork burden that convenience store owner’s face, allowing them to spend more time on other business.
As part of the Smart Regulations initiative, the Department of Finance significantly reduced the paperwork associated with obtaining fuel purchaser’s permits. By simplifying the application form and the reporting requirements the form has been reduced from 13 pages to 3 pages. These changes allow purchaser’s permit holders to have more time to manage their operations because they will be spending less time filling out government paperwork.
In December of 2012, the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture made amendments to the Parks Act that enabled the de-regulation of over 100 fees at Provincial Parks.
The parks can now offer golfing or skiing packages as they choose. Parks can now make periodic charge adjustments to fees to ensure that the price of certain activities or products offered at the parks do not significantly undercut those which exist at a nearby privately owned park. This enables the private parks to more easily attract visitors to their sites.
Prior to making these changes, the process for making regulated fee changes was very time consuming, and involved a lot of staff time to complete. These changes have improved the department’s ability to effectively and efficiently administer charges for services offered in provincial parks.
Fee changes are still posted publicly in advance of them coming into effect.