OPINION
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DECEMBER 2015 A division of Invest Northwest Publishing Ltd. Head Office 200-3060 Cedar Hill Road, Victoria V8T 3J5 Ph: 1.250.661.2297 Fax: 1.250.642.2870 Toll free: 1.866.758.2684 Website: www.businessexaminer.ca
PUBLISHER/EDITOR | Lise MacDonald, lise@businessexaminer.ca SALES | Thom Klos –thom@businessexaminer.ca, Josh Higgins – josh@businessexaminer.ca, Joanne Iormetti – joanne@businessexaminer.ca WRITERS | Goody Niosi, Julia MacDonald, Beth Hendry-Yim, John MacDonald, David Holmes WEBSITE | John MacDonald
POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS FIND A NEW WAY TO STOP FORWARD PROGRESS: DELAY
MARK MACDONALD
“D
elay, delay, delay.” T hose words, uttered by a n N DP candidate recently, outlines an anti-development mindset that is more prevalent than anyone would dare admit. This is apparently the new marching orders for the No Development Party. It’s the nouveau way to stall and prohibit investment and development. The “anti” crowd has learned how to kill projects with kindness, smiling as they declare they are open to development and the jobs they create, while silently slowing down the process to a glacial pace that strings out investors and drains their cash flow. We’ve seen it happen with increasing regularity at the municipal level, as politicians and bureaucrats pay lip service to the business community as they create new obstacles to prevent
forward movement. It’s reaching the upper levels of government. Not a surprise, since politicians often start at the civic level before moving up to provincial and federal politics. I recently interviewed an Alberta-based, oil and gas sector company, which expressed their frustration at the current state of affairs under Rachel Notley’s fledgling NDP government. To paraphrase their comments: They’ve survived the National Energy Policy, the downturn in the price of oil and other serious challenges, but the indecision and vagueness of Notley’s Crew is proving to be excruciating for their company. They’re in a constant holding pattern, not knowing if they will even have an opportunity to grow in Alberta. Should they downsize to ride out the storm? How about moving east to Saskatchewan to a more business-friendly environment? The owner says the current conditions are the worst they have experienced as a company. Anti-oil industry protesters may find news like this to be delightful, and think their dreams are being realized. With anti-resource sentiment reaching an all-time high in Canada, as an increasing number of people view resource-based industry as evil and something that needs
to be stopped, or at least choked into submission. I n the recent past, a rou nd 5,000 people living in the Okanagan – and approximately the same amount on Vancouver Island – were directly employed by the oil and gas industry in northern BC and Alberta. They worked there and lived here, resulting in an influx of cash that boosted local communities and businesses. That doesn’t include the number of ancillary businesses positively affected by having those high-paying jobholders living in our towns. The rapid growth in air passenger numbers is directly attributable to workers commuting to and from the oil fields for work, for example. Although they manage to stay under the radar most of the time, the forest industry on Vancouver Island employs close to 6,000 workers. These are not minimum-wage jobs – they often pay in six figures per worker. All these represent a very significant contribution to not just our local economies, but government coffers due to the higher levels of tax they pay, compared to those holding entry-level positions. So, if the anti-resource and no-development forces that have ma naged to cl i mb i nto positions of influence want to
fu nda mental ly change that, they’re now in a place they can try it. As they endeavour to do so, they’d best make sure they have an alternative - as in better method – of creating replacement high end incomes. We don’t need to look too far back in history to see what happens when a society decides to make a quantum shift in its economy. In 1958, Chairman Mao anno u nc e d t h at Ch i n a wo u ld abandon its agricultural roots in favour of the potentially more lucrative stainless steel industry. In what was called “The Great Leap Forward”, Mao encourage Chinese people to begin manufacturing stainless steel, which they did, in their backyards, homes. . .anywhere, in homemade “smelters”. This was how they would leap out of economic reliance on agriculture. The problem was that the stainless steel they made was, not surprisingly, completely worthless. This social experiment lasted for three years, ending in futility, and starvation for something in the neighbourhood of 30 million Chinese citizens. In their drastic shift towards industrialization, their forfeited not only their traditional occupations, but the means by which they fed themselves as a country. They stopped growing food.
It was, really, a great leap backward, as that period was the only time between the years 1953 and 1985 that China’s economy shrank. What does that have to do with Canada? Resource-based industry has been the backbone of our economy for decade upon decade. If we want that to change, then that needs to be made incrementally, not suddenly. I’m not suggesting that turning off the oil and gas taps will result in millions of Canadians starving. But we’re already starting to feel the pinch, and it’s more than just lower prices. A n estimated 50,000 Canadians have already lost their oil and gas related jobs. There could be more, and will be, if governments persist in carryi ng out t hei r a nt i-resou rce pronouncements. We’re waiting eagerly to hear the news about the change in economic policy that will replace those six figures jobs. Not with minimum wage options, but with similar yielding positions that raise families, buy homes and vehicles, and provide a future for our young people. It would be prudent to create those first, rather than cutting off the revenue supply we’ve traditionally had in this country without any reasonable replacement on the horizon.
PROVINCE’S RED TAPE REDUCTION EFFORTS WORTHWHILE
LAURA JONES CFIB
G
overnment departments are fundamentally different from private businesses in that they do not face competition. There is no voting with your feet if you think that frontline staff are unfriendly or if forms are confusing. It’s a recipe for mediocrity or worse, unless other ways of pushing for better service can be found. In this context, elected officials soliciting our feedback about
government service improvement is a substitute, albeit a grossly imperfect one, for competition. Provincial Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction Coralee Oakes is doing just that. She is looking for your help to identify the blizzard of little irritants that arise from interacting with government. The six-week consultation, which ends on Dec. 3, is part of the government’s broader effort to keep a lid on red tape while preserving justified regulation. The minister is looking for “simple fixes that will improve your life when you interact with government.” It’s easy to contribute an idea on the website at: engage. gov.bc.ca/helpcutredtape. It’s also worthwhile. The commitment to those who contribute is that, “While not every idea will be implemented, every comment and idea submitted will be reviewed and considered. A list of actions will be posted on the website.”
This is not for show. The minister and her staff are taking this seriously, and we know they will be looking for things to announce on the recently legislated Red Tape Reduction Day in March and during Red Tape Awareness Week in January. The site now has over 100 comments and suggestions. Much of it is common sense. One woman describes the frustrating experience of dealing with six different doctors as they tried to diagnose her husband. Next, in her words, “We asked to see his chart, so that we could at least piece his prognosis together ourselves. We were handed a form and told it would be 30 business days. Apparently, the patient has no right to their own healthcare information. Obviously, this is not helpful.” Not surprisingly, there are many comments on the website about the challenges of dealing with the government electronically, from not being able to save
a PDF to not being able to report a personnel change for a charity’s board without declaring the former board member deceased. The consultation is the perfect place to raise any number of business issues too, such as this one: There is a rule requiring a truck driver who is also a temporary foreign worker to get a work permit before being issued a driver’s license, while another rule requires the worker to get a driver’s license before being issued a work permit. And while we are on the topic of driver’s licenses, over 1,000 British Columbians renew their licenses each day. What if we could do that once every 10 years instead of five? Think of the time that change alone would free up for everyone, including government employees. Broader issues for consideration include making sure gover n ment com mu n ic at ion i s intelligible, training staff to better understand the realities of the
people they help, and ensuring auditors have appropriate incentives to behave professionally, with repercussions if they do not. I n l au nch i n g t h i s con s u ltation, Oakes has created an opportunity to take action on the sma l l but i mporta nt red tap e i ss u e s t h at don’t g rab head l i nes but do m a ke d i fferences in people’s lives. Resolv i ng them contributes to the constructive relationship between a government and its citizens that is so important. It prevents the blizzard of little irritants from undermining our productivity and our good humour. This consultation is well worth the minister’s time and ours. Laura Jones is Executive Vice President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. She can be reached at laura.jones@cfib.ca. Follow her on Twitter @CFIBideas.
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