David Chaundy
Guest Opinion
Last year, APEC (Atlantic Provinces Economic Council) released proposals to help advance regional regulatory alignment and government cooperation. While there is little evidence of an appetite to embrace these proposals in their entirety, I would urge you to act on at least one element of our proposals: to operationalize the joint Atlantic regulatory office.
Three years ago all four Atlantic governments passed “mirror” legislation – the Regulatory Accountability and Reporting Act (the Act) – recognizing the importance of regulation to protect interests such as public health, safety and the environment yet committing to improving the efficiency of regulation and the quality of regulatory governance.
This legislation affirmed the establishment of a joint regulatory office (the Joint Office) to “take action on opportunities for regional regulatory reform.” While the Joint Office was created by mutual agreement and mirror legislation, it has never been operationalized as a functioning office, such as having its own full-time staff, budget or website, as we emphasized last year.
The legislation requires the designated minister for regulatory affairs in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador to conduct a comprehensive review of the Joint Office and the act within three years of the act. As you undertake this review, I encourage you to examine the benefits of creating a fully functioning regional office with a mandate, budget and staff resources to make advances in regional regulatory reform.
Nova Scotia’s legislation set up and requires a review of its own Office for Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness (ORASE) office after three years – this review has just been released.
The experience of the Nova Scotia office clearly shows what could be achieved if the joint regulatory office was given a budget, staff and mandate to pursue regional regulatory reform. It does not require a large investment to make an impact.
ORASE has a small office with about 15 full-time staff and a budget of just over $2 million. Yet it has achieved much in the last three years. Highlights include a new tool to assess the impact of new regulations on business before approval; over 60 separate initiatives that have reduced regulatory compliance costs for Nova Scotia businesses by $34 million annually; and a navigator service that has helped 4,000 start ups and small businesses, saving them a combined $3 million.
Your governments all want to see your provinces grow. Regional regulatory reform is about being pro-growth. A small business in one of your provinces that wants to expand into another province must navigate different sets of corporate registration, labour, occupational health and safety, and environmental standards in order to be compliant. This is an unnecessary burden that a truly operational joint regulatory office could help reduce over time.
Businesses that operate in more than one Atlantic province account for almost half (43%) of business sector employment in the region. The resources they must spend in complying with two to four different sets of provincial regulations could be better re-invested in growing their business. Our 2016 report clearly documented how these unnecessary provincial regulatory differences impede efficiency and client service, reduce revenues and increase costs for firms and ultimately their clients, and imply higher costs for four governments to create and administer four sets or regulations.
Remember, your combined provincial population of 2.4 million is less than that of Vancouver, just over half the size of Montreal, and less than 40% the size of Toronto. Businesses in those cities can serve larger markets within one set of provincial and municipal regulations.
Regulatory reform requires a long-term commitment to address a large number of existing regulatory differences and inefficiencies in regulatory frameworks and to help reduce the creation of new regulatory differences as governments introduce new regulations. It needs dedicated resources and an effective governance model to achieve this.
Nova Scotia has taken steps to improve its own regulatory processes. Other provinces can learn from its work. But as businesses grow, they need to operate across provincial boundaries, which is why Atlantic regulatory alignment is so important. This can also complement the work undertaken at the Regulatory Reconciliation Table under the Canada Free Trade Act. Nova Scotia’s leadership shows how regional regulatory reform can support alignment across Canada. But the four Atlantic provinces should also be able to move further and faster in some areas.
have many files to look after. So I urge you to operationalize the regional regulatory office with the mandate, budget and staff it needs to provide the leadership and dedicated action that will help remove unnecessary obstacles to the competitiveness of firms in your own provinces, and strengthen the regional economy.
David Chaundy is the President and CEO of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC).
