Do you think overregulation is strangling Canada's economy?

Jazz Siekham thought his new business idea was a winner. He'd start a mini-bus company that provided door-to-door transportation -- like a taxi but cheaper. By operating vans that could each carry seven passengers, he could keep costs down. He'd charge a flat rate of $3.50 for a ride anywhere within the city of Vancouver.

Siekham approached the city for approval in January 1997. The Engineering Department responded by asking him to research the idea. So he paid $150,000 for three studies, which concluded that his idea would work. Despite these findings, and the support of numerous business and community associations, the city government worried about the idea's effect on existing services and pondered new regulations. Siekham's plan was never approved.

"The taxi companies fought it tooth and nail," he says.

Down but not out, Siekham launched his service in three suburban municipalities: West Vancouver, the District of North Vancouver and the City of North Vancouver. He obtained a licence in each jurisdiction only to run afoul of the B.C. Motor Carrier Commission, which wouldn't let him carry passengers across municipal boundaries.

"It's a crazy situation where a worthwhile innovation is being stopped by regulation and by people's fear of competition," says Warren Gill, a professor at Simon Fraser University who specializes in transportation. Gill says shuttle services like Siekham's operate very successfully in Miami and Seattle.

From coast to coast, eager entrepreneurs are strangled by red tape. In a 1995 report, the Treasury Board of Canada stated, "There are more than 40,000 pages of federal regulations that Canadians find difficult to understand and that are often redundant and obsolete."

The provinces, too, are guilty of overregulating business. In British Columbia, for example, the Workers Compensation Act was amended in April 1998. The result: 1,400 more regulations on top of the existing 4,000.

With municipal bylaws adding to the burden across the country, the cost of all this bureaucracy is crushingly high -- about $83 billion a year, or $4,250 for every taxpayer, according to the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute.

Jim Hatch, a professor at the Richard Ivy School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, says: "Regulations may start out to protect the public, improve services or provide a reasonable income for people in the business, but they often evolve into a way of protecting a special-interest group." Cabdrivers with a licence, for example, don't want to see new ones issued to anyone else. Says Hatch: "The consumer loses out -- through higher prices and less choice."

Red tape can be cut. Newfoundland eliminated 171 required permits and licences in 1992. In 1994 and 1995, the province reviewed 2,400 regulations and ditched 1,100 of them as well. For example, Newfoundland no longer regulates the number of truckers. Anyone with a truck that meets the province's safety standards can carry freight.

Newfoundland also established one-stop shopping for most of the permits that still apply. Entrepreneurs can get environmental, land-use, health and safety permits in one office. "We're trying to make it less onerous for people to start a business," says Weldon Moores, a senior director in the province's Department of Government Services and Lands. "Then they can get on with actually running their businesses."

The University of Western Ontario's Jim Hatch says Canadian businesses and consumers suffer under an immense amount of regulation. "If you want to start a farm in Ontario and have chickens that lay eggs, you have to get permission from the province. In all likelihood they won't let you, because they already have farms that have quotas for eggs. We have countless rules that the average person is not aware of until he tries to do something.

"This dampens initiative -- and it's a major reason why Canada is not a dynamic business environment."

Do you think overregulation is strangling Canada's economy?

Comments:
Hi
Of course I thnk regulations are strangling canadians That story is just one of them I think the governement thnks far too much of itself. Here is someone trying to help people with a good idea and it is trashed. In England we have mail carriers that double as a bus to outlying districts. That is on the rural routes. great Idea.
When will governments and other people in office learn that they are not little gods.

Comments:
British Columbia has so many regulations now that new businesses are looking for greener pastures.
An example of a very silly regulation came to my attention a few years ago when I was a manager in the B. C. government. The complainant was a miner who wanted to get up to his claims and minesite in the mountains near here to do the mandated work on his various claims. The provincial government required that he do a set amount of work per year to hold the claims and part of the credit given was building mine roads in the area. The government then gave forestry sub-contractors instructions through regulations that they must make any roads they put in impassable when they completed their work. The ministry of the Environment was also given the right through regulations to tear out roads completely at their whim.
The miner was left totally in limbo when his required roads that he had put in and had been given credit for in government regulations were torn up and he could no longer prove up his mining holdings. The government department that ordered his roads torn up couldn't have cared less that the road installation had already been approved by another government department.
It's like Alice In Wonderland.

Comments:
Overregulated....In some aspects. We must not be completely narrow minded. While it good to be able to make our own choices we must remember that there are people who are not sure of what the right choice is. Regulation can sometimes put a certain type of control on people who are very willing to take advantage of the fellowman. Without regulation,these people will not be held accountable for there actions against the consumer

Comments:
Anything we can do to cut taxes in this country
will help us become a dynamic, prosperous country.

Comments:
The issue of "red tape" has been a concern of mine for years. It is further compounded by the tremendous amount of effort required to gather and report on sales taxes, income taxes (both personal and corporate), payroll taxes and Stats Canada reporting to name a few.

We are constantly hearing that Canada is less productive than the U.S. and therefore we have a lower standard of living but we don't have to look far to see why.

We spend many hours on non-value added work and then have to pay more taxes for the maintenance and enforcement of all the rules, regulations and requirements that are slowly choking us.

Areas such as the income tax act are constantly added to but very seldom is anything taken out. At least 1/2 of the population is forced to hire a professional to file their tax returns in what is supposed to be a self-assessing system.

I would like to see a millenium project where every level of government, regulation and taxation is required to reduce their rules by at least 50%. Our current system is rapidly becoming unworkable.

Comments:
Yes - almost every sector of Canadian life is over-regulated by a country that is grossly over-governed. We have too many governments passing laws and collecting fees, tolls and taxes of every conceivable kind.

Comments:
Gambling is like a ball and chain in the Garden of Eden --- you can try to break away, but the battle can sometimes feel like you'll never win.

Comments:
I believe overregulation will strangle the economy of any country. I live in Spokane, Washington. About 6 months ago Forbes magazine rated Spokane 161st out of 162 cities unfriendly to business because of overregulation. How's THAT for a reputation? To build a project in either the city or county of Spokane is one of the most time consuming and frustrating things a builder can take on. Small business is strangled by high taxes and red tape which ensures the eating up any profit an owner may make. Hire employees and your nightmare begins.

Comments:
The time has come for Canada to follow
Newfoundland's lead and get rid of some of
these ancient regulations. It would be good
for our country and a feather in Newfoundland's
cap as well - provided of course that the folks
in Ottawa don't take the credit for the idea.

Comments:
Yes,I think the government is overregulating business ventures.This is resulting in lost opportunities for people who have the courage to start up new businesses that are different.This is causing lost jobs for Canadians as well.Regulation started out as a good thing—to keep people from taking advantage of other Canadians, but it has outgrown its usefulness.It has also failed in what it was intended to do. Many Canadians are being taken advantage of even with all the regulations the government has in place. So regulating is not the answer and should be only used to study Canadian business growth, not to keep it from growing.

Comments:
As a municipal employee, or bearucrat in some peoples eyes, I see many flaws in your article. Yes, we do have many rules which are "by the letter." If we were to waiver from them, our liability would go up and we would be personally liable for having allowed things which were not per the bylaws. Our society fails in that we try to please everyone and fail to enforce the rules.I agree that there are many more licences and bylaws, but thanks to the federal government, which handed reduced taxes to the provincial government which in turn "reduced" taxes to the municipal government, we must now through "user" fees, etc. make up for the lack of funds. There is no reduction in taxes. In fact taxes have probably gone up more than ever. Cash cows are hard to get rid of.

Comments:
Yes, we are being overregulated!
We should be relying more heavily on our own judgement than on Gov't safety regulations!! Give me back my CHOICE!! Things will govern themselves! If I don't like the look of the restaurant or taxi, I won't go there!!!

Child Poverty - Gov't has wanted input as to how to improve this issue - our kids aren't being fed!! DEREGULATE!!! That way Dad could run a little trucking business, and Mom could sell baking for a living, etc. Big business doesn't have to worry - the small businesses would only be getting the business that can't currently afford to patronize the big business!!! But THAT would be enough to give back self-esteem and would be enough to feed the kids.

Deregulation would give ALL Canadian Citizens back the feeling that we are in control of our lives, therefore improving ALL things in Canada.

Comments:
Yes,Please help help the Red tape so pur people can get on with creating there own jobs.

Comments:
Due to the overwhelming number of completely unnecessary regulations and the vigor with which they are constantly enforced, Canada will not get the boost it needs to compete in the 21st century until one basic rule is respected by Jean Chretien: TAKE YOUR CITIZENS SERIOUSLY!

Comments:
As a foreigner I was actually planning to immigrate to Canada to set up my own small IT business...which suddenly doesn't seem such a good idea anymore. Too bad, because I'd prefer Canada 100 times or more over the U.S.

Comments:
It's not hard to see that a large percentage of our problems in the rules and regulations of our country and it's provinces have been implimented by LAWYERS. These are some of the most manipulative people in society and most would agree that there are far too many of them. They are always looking for ways to justify there means as is the case with most municipalities in this country They put some of the most ridiculous regulations in place just so that they can then tell you that certain procedures are not allowed. Of course you could pay for more studies. What a load of crap that is. We need to remove most of the large body of regulators and make these people start their own buisness. Do something good for the economy or get out of the way.

Comments:
Response to Dec/99 issue 'The Great Gas Gouge', ,considering fuel price without tax has risen from 21c/l as of Feb'99 to 46.7c'/lJan'oo while the tax remains at 19.4c/l,who is gouging who? Can.Oil Co. blame it on world oil price which is app. 1/2 what it was 25yrs. ago. One wonders if this 121% increase has been passed onto to salaries. I think the theives are the Oil Co.. The economy will suffer due to the probable inflation rise as costs are passed on and in turn interest rates will be used to try to curb inflation. While, I agree fuel tax is high,and probably mismanaged this is increase has nothing to do with taxes.Maybe its time to slap the culprits fingers.

Comments:
Yes we are overregulated!!It seems if you go into business for yourself that you are forever paying a fee to some gov't agency or another.Usually it seems that few of the agencies have anything to do with the business that you're trying to conduct.

Comments:
You only have to do a joint busines deal with a US partner to realize the truth of Professor Hatch's statetment, "This dampens initiative -- and it's a major reason why Canada is not a dynamic business environment."

I believe we Canadian's have the good sense to conduct business ethically without as much red tape (and there still seems to be a certain amount of fraud in spite of the voluminous regulations).

I am certain we also will thrive from free-trade when we get beyond the expectation that the government and unions should "protect me" from competition. The products and services we have to offer will stand on their own merit anywhere in the world.

Comments:
Interesting story and shows one side of the problem. Also it's not much different then the United States.
About seven years ago I was looking at starting another small business in Guelph, Ontario selling popcorn from a mobile cart. It didn't get past the investigation stage due to cart bylaws still being designed. They only had guessimates as to what would be required and the costs. After months of waiting no answer was forth coming so I shelved the idea.
On a trip shortly there after while passing through Frankenmuth, Michigan I stopped into the local chamber of commerce and casually asked about setting up a popcorn cart business. They said no problem you just need a permit and help with the paper work. The permit was cheap and there was supplier for all I needed in Detroit.
It looked good until I went to the next step which was financing. This venture was going to cost more then I had, since I was converting to US dollars. The amount of security needed to keep the banks happy made the whole deal not worth it. The banks in Canada are the same way.
Then last year Canada Trust called my office and said the business had been approved for a line of credit and increased my credit card limit. In one instance I now had access to over $20,000.
I don't need the money now because the business focus has changed. However, this shows when you need it you can't get it and when you don't you got it.

Comments:
I cannot address all of the article but I did spend 32 years in the Transit industry. There is a constant pressure by private operators to set up businesses which will "cream" the transportation market and thereby create a profitable enterprise for them. Transit systems are controlled by performance criteria which assure that a level of transportation is available through a large segment of the day over most of the residential area. A large segment of the ridership is unable to access regular transportation due to age (young or old),income,health or other situation. This portion of the business is not allways profitable but it does address a social need. Transit systems need the high revenue times to supplement the very low ridership times and areas. Examine the offer by the private sector and you will find that there is no guarantee of service if it is not profitable. The revenue generated by a private operator is at the expense of the public transit and will be reflected in higher operating expenses, and therefore higher taxes. Articles such as this do not present the whole picture and create pressures which elected officials find difficult to resist. The simple logic appeals to everyone who has not reviewed the total picture.

Comments:
What more can you say but "Yes!"? Government regulators are KILLING our economy. When I read these articles I am infuriated. How can anyone do business is this country? Not a surprise that so many go south of the border.

Comments:
I am pleased that the province of Newfoundland is eliminating their red tape. Hopefully this could improve their ecomonic problems and reduce the high unemployment. The other provinces should follow suit.

Comments:
Claudia Cornwall's 'Strangles by Red Tape' sums up the thoughts of small business owners across the country. The bureaucratic red tape is the beginning of a vicious circle. It has been said that Canada is the most highly regulated country in the world.All these regulations create a need for more bureaucrats which is accompanied with a high price tag. The bloated bureacracy contributes to increased taxation rates placing Canada as the highest taxed country in the G-7. Because of high income tax rates and payroll taxes, small business does not have the cash flow to expand. This is why 78% of small Canadian businesses employ less than 5 employees. The circle is thus completed and bound together with 'red tape'.

Comments:
As a small buisnessman in Victoria B.C. for 15 years, I have also gradually noticed that everytime there's any kind of slowdown, it's usually some form of red tape. Goverment is too big, we know this and yet we still just go along for the ride.
What is it going to take to wake this great country of ours up? I do know smart buisness and this government or any other for that matter doesn't seem to get it at all.
Good buisness is run by smart people making informed choices on how to do buisness to benifit themselves and their community. Government hires the wrong candidates for the jobs all the time instead of having qualified people fill the positions and thenthey wonder where they went wrong.
Get rid of red tape ! It doesn't work. It is broken and needs to be fixed.

Comments:
Yes small business and the general population are being strangled by red tape. Farming is another area that is being strangled into non-existance by red tape and idiotic by-laws. Our neighbours may lose their farm because they bought power of sale and must renovate the house as well as reclaim the pasture lands. They were told to submit a three year plan in order to keep the farm tax credit but are now in danger of losing it because they are finding it impossible to get any start up funding form any level of government.
We officially live in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area)but have very little to do with Toronto and we are subsequently governed by laws made in towns with little or no concern for our rapidly dwindling farm land. If we as a society do not wish to import all of our food we had better sit up and take notice of what is happening to our prime agricultural lands.

Comments:
I had just read the article "Strangled by Red Tape" when my son gave me the following joke to read. How applicable!

The Modern Ark
--------------
The Lord spoke to Noah and said, "Noah, in six months I am going
to make it rain until the whole world is covered with water and
all the evil things are destroyed. But I want to save a few good
people and two of every living thing on the planet. So I am ordering
you to build an Ark."

And, in a flash of lightning, the Lord delivered the specifications
for the Ark.

"OK," Noah said, trembling with fear and fumbling with the blueprints.

"I'm your man."

"Six months and it starts to rain," warned the Lord. "You better have
my Ark completed -- or learn to swim for a long, long time!"

Six months passed, the sky began to cloud up, and the rain began to
fall in torrents. The Lord looked down and saw Noah sitting in his
yard, weeping. There was no Ark.

"Noah!" shouted the Lord, "where is My Ark?"

A lightning bolt crashed into the ground right beside Noah.

"Lord, please forgive me!" begged Noah. "I did my best, but there
were some big problems. First, I had to get a building permit for
the Ark's construction, but your plans didn't meet their code. So,
I had to hire an engineer to redo the plans, only to get into a
long argument with him about whether to include a fire-sprinkler system.

"My neighbors objected, claiming that I was violating zoning ordinances
by building the Ark in my front yard, so I spent months trying to get a
variance from the city planning board.

"After all that, I had a big problem getting enough wood for the Ark,
because there was a ban on cutting trees, to save the spotted owl. I
tried to convince the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that I needed
the wood to *save* the owls, but they wouldn't listen. And they wouldn't
let me catch any owls, either - so no owls on the Ark.

"Then the carpenters' union started picketing my home because I wasn't
using union carpenters. I had to halt construction and begin negotiating
with the National Labor Relations Board.

"Next, I started gathering up the animals -- but got sued by an animal
rights group that objected to me taking along only two of each kind.

Just when that suit got dismissed, the EPA notified me that I couldn't
complete the Ark without filing an environmental impact statement on
your proposed flood. They didn't take kindly to the idea that they had
no jurisdiction over the conduct of a Supreme Being.

"Then the Corps of Engineers wanted a map of the proposed flood plan.

I sent them a globe - and they went ballistic!

"The IRS has seized all my assets, claiming that I am trying to leave
the country, and I just got a notice from the state that I owe some
kind of use tax.

"Lord, I'm sorry, but I don't think there's any way I can finish the
Ark in less than five years - if ever!"

With that, the sky cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow arched
across the sky. Noah looked up and smiled. "You mean you are not going
to destroy the world?" he asked hopefully.

"Wrong!" thundered the Lord. "But I'm going to do it with something far
worse than a mere flood. Something far more destructive. Something that
man himself created."

"What's that?" Noah asked.

"Government!" said the Lord.

Comments:
Over regulation has definately got out of hand, and in more ways than one. We live in an area just outside of Parksville, (who want to expand their boundaries, and take us over for our tax base), dictated to by the district of Nanimo (who outnumber our one representative that they allow comparted to their 8).We pay our taxes to the Area of Port Alberni (over the mountain) and are told the district of Nanaimo is putting in their city bylaws and regulations into our rural area, even tho the people had many referandums already and have voted them down by 2000 - 8, to be left alone. They are still going through with it! We are trying to take them to court to preserve our rural community, but we will lose, and just put off the inevitable. We also are trying to provoke the charter of rights, but we are outnumbered. Our area uniquiness will disappear in the corporate jungle of over regulation like everything else!

Comments:
I want to sincerely thank all those who have submitted their comments, heartbreaking accounts of run ins with red tape, and their frustrations.

I have endured so many years of this. I submitted an earlier response (jokes2go@hotmail.com) Reading your stories was not only frightening in the scope of this plague, but it was like finding a support group (trendy term).

Here is how to tell your government how you feel about this topic. www.gc.ca is the main web site for the Government of Canada. You can locate the main site for each cabinet minister. You can email him/her directly. www.on.ca is the main Ontario site, and each provincial government has its own site. You can find all the telephone fax and emails for all the politicians. Add their email address to your addresses list. Email presents the opportunity for direct contact with your politicians and bureaucrats. You can find all the civil servants on these sites too, and you can email senior civil servants. The higher you go the more receptive they are to your complaints, and the more likely to act on them.

Canadians are on the whole very meek and mild, and have allowed this red tape to get out of hand.

Thanks again for all of our accounts and comments.
jokes2go@hotmail.com

Comments:
We are so riddled with regulations in this country that it amazes me that Canada doesn't choke on them and seize up altogether.
As a small business owner in the computer industry, it frustrates me to no end that I can get things from the USA cheaper than what I buy them for here, or else Canada doesn't support the technology. This country is not a true democracy, because it doesn't matter how we respond to government policies and regulations, nothing ever changes. The citizens of this country should not have to march on Parliament Hill to get the Prime Minister's attention, but then again it might pay off!! If he isn't aware of the people's disgust with the way he is running Canada then he must be blinded by his own Red Tape.

Comments:
Yes! overregulation is hurting our economy, freedom and recreation greatly. The costs to our society are tremendous and I hope that all of the various governments will follow the lead of Newfoundland in this area. In the Yukon, the OH@S are drafting new regulations and have searche the country for new ones to include. In some cases they don't even know what the regulation, they want to enact, even says. One person I know, who is a professional writer, wanted to start a business in this area doing professional ads, reports, etc. By the time The City of Whitehorse approved him to work out of his apartment, he had to get al least three permits and licences, the permission of his neighbours, the apartment building manager and the City. It cost several hundred dollars so that he could use a word-processor.All areas of human activity are being stifled by overregulation, most of it being justified under the guise of protecting something from something else, but really in my opinion,just to enlarge the bureaucracy.

Comments:
What happened to democracy and the freedom to pursue dreams? It seems all is lost to a sea of power, control, ... greed, and fear. Monopoly rather than competition is the name of the game. Yes regulations are needed, but overregulations should be weighed carefully before instituting such policies.

Comments:
Government regulations and medling in the free enterprise system is costing this County losses that are beyond calculation. Taxation (also a form of regulation) licencing, and red tape at all levels of governemt are to the point where it is foolish to start new ventures. And don't forget, this is a game where the rules can be changed at anytime!
I embarked on a 42 lot residential land development in 89 in a small Ontario town with two partners. By all accounts, a beautifully done project in a very desirable area that couldn't loose. Some of our favourite demands by local govenment were sidewalks down both side of the street that went nowhere as the next closest sidewalks were half a mile away, and storm water outlets running uphill in the event of a 1 in 100 year flood! These and an endless flow of mindless regulations and red tape held up our project almost a year beyond our project start date!
We were beat before we started! By the time we were ready to sell lots, the local town government had created a $3000.00 per lot impost fee, the Feds had created GST which applied to our "product", and the economy had begun it's downward spiral. This new burden of almost $7000.00 per lot could not be justified by the consumer and hence lot sales stopped dead! In the few presales that we had to close, we lost money by absorbing the $7000.00.
It is now 11 years later and there are still two lots left to sell. I went bankrupt, loosing my home, and life savings, as I had risked everything to make this project go. The other partners still joke about the big party at "McDonalds" we will all have when the last lost finally sell. The project is now a beautiful residential neighbourhood, feeding thousands of dollars into the local tax base.
The respective governments and banks made enormous profits while the risk taking entrapenauers where left with nothing. So much for the "Canadian dream."

Comments:
RE; Your article about overregulation. The Worker's Compensation Board here in B.C. is so afraid of admitting that their new non-smoking policies are killing small businesses,causing impressive layoffs and increasing the welfare rolls that they now are refusing to listen to any input from those directly affected. These new rules mean that I, as a smoking person, cannot legally hire a workman to come to my home to do any repairs that I can not do myself. Are they going to pay for my injuries or God forbid, my funeral? Or would they pay me compensation if I put in a claim for respitory problems? I would be willing to bet my soul that such a claim would be denied!
WCB is now telling the population of B.C. how to live and how to run businesses! And you thought we lived in a democracy!

Comments:
My partner and I have been operating a small business for fifteen years. About 1991, I decided to list all the government agencies and departments we had to "do things for". These "things" if not done subjected us to penalties, threats, interest charges, licence suspensions, courts etc.

The endless hours of unpaid government work from collecting taxes for the government to filling out endless forms for useless purposes drained productivity, cash, time and energy from us.

When my list reached FIFTY different government agencies and departments, I had to stop, I was literally ill with the realization of the huge, oppressive government interference in our lives and business.

Even more frightening was to come face to face with the number of departments and agencies that had the police power to audit, inspect, issue violations, charge, fine, penalize, take to Court
and close your business down if they wanted to.
Are you ready? Of the FIFTY listed, THIRTY had internal enforcement personnel(police forces) who could walk unannounced into our place of business.

Ready for the real scarey part? Almost every one of these internal enforcement people ( many have more power than your local police force)
can issue violations and charges that pronounce you guilty. Your alternative is to buckle under and pay, or go to Court to prove you are innocent.

I always thought a democracy meant you were innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Isn't that what our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms says?

If you are an incorporated Company, you can't represent your company yourself in any COurt challenge. A corporation must be represented by a lawyer. Thus huge legal bills are incurred to defend yourself.

If you scrutinize the legislation that gives the police power to these enforcement personnel of all levels of government, you will have a very difficult time trying to find anything in the legislation or supporting departmental manuals that sets out exactly how the enforcement personnel must act. And what the punishmebt is if they err. It isn't there.

There are no protections in the legislative acts that give these police powers for the target of the enforcement other than the opportunity to challenge them in Court.

If you go to www.gc.ca the home page for the Government of Canada and look up the Canada Labour Code you will see a fine example of what I describe.

Since 1991 I have given out my list of the Fifty Government agencies ( all levels of government) and departments that our tiny company ( employees 8 to 10) was being suffocated by. I sent the list to the party leaders before the provincial election in Ontario in the early 90's. I was gratified to see Premier Harris set up a Red Tape Committee ( see the Ona\tario web site) which tried to reduce red tape, but the changes didn't much affect our Company. I was asked to send my list to the committee.

I sent my list to Federal Finance Minister Paul Martin and was impressed by his direct response, expressing shock at the burden we carried. The Federal government did set up a Senate Committee on Small Business and Paul Martin's office forwarded my list to it, but I have seen no changes.

I have given my list to a vast number of civil servants over the last decade. When a fellow showed up to do a payroll audit, I said , "If I seem crabby, I want you to know it is not you personally, I want you to know you are part of an overwhelming government interference in my life and business". I showed him the list. He asked if he could have the copy. A few minutes later he said, "You know, I have a really heavily booked day today. Your payroll book looks fine, I don't think I need to look at any more records", and he left.

Nothing has changed in ten years. The governments at every level have imposed such a burden on us that it has sucked the life blood from our Company. We don't have the time , (there are two of us at the management/owner level and that's all we can afford) to market, sell, network, or properly give the attention to the Company's financial matters as we should. Or to look for alternate funding.

Now our Company is in receivership. We were up to fifteen employees , exxporting our product all over the world. We have an excellent reputation and ran a good business. But its all gone now. And I will lay a great deal of this failure at the doorstep of the many levels of government: local, regional, coounty, provincial and federal that suffocate our economy, our innovators and our small businesses with excessive, mindless, busywork regulations that have no sense at all.

An email friend from New Zealand expressed it well last week. He wrote: "Bureaucrats are the plague of the working people. They serve no useful purpose whatsoever in our society."

Comments to me can be sent to jokes2go@hotmail.com. I thank the Readers Digest and Ms Cromwell for an excellent article. Sadly, nothing will change. Canada is not a democracy. It is a government that can only be described as Soft Totalitarianism. (Big Brother). Government that says, "Government has to do it because Government does not believe you, the citizens, know how to conduct yourselves. "

Comments:
Most developed countries suffer from over-regulation. It comes in part from a desire on the part of government [both elected and bureaucratic]to social engineer for "our own good" and, in part, to generate revenues. They have to justify their existences and their inflated salaries somehow.

Neither government nor trade unions are willing to admit that the true backbone of the economy [at least that part of the economy which employs people] is small business. Instead, they place roadblocks and landmines in the way of every attempt by people with initiative and ambition to better themselves and, along the way, develop this country's economy. Without such initiatives many jobs would not exist. Talk about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

Comments:
As a single mother, with two sons attending full-time University (Medical and Law Faculties), I try to supplement my income with doing whatever I can ... we have too many rules, rules over-riding rules ... every gov't agency stops you somehow, someway from making an honest dollar no matter how hard you work .... We now work until nearly the end of July for the government ... let us be ... we are a free democratic country ... those that have drive, ambition, motivation and an unusual idea should be allowed to try and thrive!

Comments:
I would like the person in Newfoundland that decided to clean up the red tape to run for Prime Minister. They have my vote!

Comments:
Your piece on Strangling on Red Tape brought back memories of the time I was in the Cdn army when everything had to be done in triplicate except going to the bathroom.
Your question,"Is the government strangling the economy with red tape" is aloaded question and at stake is the jobs of all the beaurocrats who inforce these regulations. Eliminate the red tape and you will put a great many paperpushers out of a job and allow free enterprise to finally take a hold in this country.
These rules and regulations are there to "protect the People from thoughtless and dishonest businesses"
And if you believe that I have some land, a bridge or two and a statue I can sell you but the transaction must be in cash (small unmarked bills) no checks please.
The red tape is there to give 5 people a job that should and could be done by one.
If you eliminate 90% of all red tape and regulations today within 6 months 30% would be back and within two years you would have 110% of the former red tape and regulations. This is to save the foney balony jobs of these paperpushers who couldn,t care less about John Q Public as long as they keep thier cushy jobs and their fantastic pensions.
Are we being strangled by red tape?

Comments:
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that we don't have government "by the people...FOR the people"! Our government's involvement in business should be to encourage business, not discourage it. The biggest problem is that most of the people making the policies have never had to follow them. Also, it is quite apparent that it is much easier to make a law than it is to get rid of it. Isn't it time for a change?

Comments:
I do believe over regulation has ruined many entrepreneurial efforts.
The people making the regulations don't realize how much profit they are loosing, but having an idea fail because of overregulation. If communities helped people, instead of hindering people in their efforts, there would be a lot more employment, more small businesses, more development, more home additions, etc. but there's so much red tape and believe this "rudeness" in trying to deal with the beauraucrats, that people just say forget it. e.g. We have a farm, and wanted to grow our own potatoes and have a chip truck on our property. No way, you're agricultural and a chip trucks commercial. Then we wanted to take 3 lots off of the 150 acres we have, reason being that the far end of the farm cannot be utilized. Poor soil and low land. At least $5,000.00 per severance. There could be three homes on that land by now, paying property taxes to the town, but no, you're agricultural, even though you can't use the land for farming, and even though, the government would get the profits from one lot, the town would get the money from the 2nd lot sold, and the farm would possibly get most of the profit from the third lot. This money could assist to repair fences, another well, barn repairs, but no-way. Therefore quite often rules and regulations bar improvements, increased profits to their own towns. Occasionally you hear of a town that HELPS its residents. That's the town to live in. That town will grow.
Thank you.
Donna Wallis

Comments:
I have worked for the federal govenment and at one time owned a small business. Having worked for the government I feel that thier internal policy's are for what I call empire building.The larger the portfolio they control the larger their budget et. al. I do not feel policies are being enacted for the good of the people, but for the good of the govt. or for business.

Sincerely
Mitch Uhl

Comments:
Ideffinately think the canadian goverment is over regulating. I've looked into starting small business and because of goverment regulations it would cost me 4 times the amount, to operate. this brings about 4 more people unemployed and less taxes going into are economy. ie: more people employed stronger the economy. less people employed more money the goverment pays.

Comments:
Actually, we are over governed, if as consumers we vote with our dollars that should be enough. Special interest groups should make their points by convincing the public, rather than pressuring
politicians. Example, the CRTC is a waste of time and money, as is the CBC. Also, if the Federal
Government would reliquish it's strangle-hold on
power, it could eliminate a lot of overlapping
paper-work. Isn't that what the "national unity"
issue is really all about.

Comments:
I do believe that at the rate that we are going
with goverment making laws against peoples wishes,
and applying redtape to all endeavors, we are
slowing becoming a third world

Comments:
i am sick and tired seing many other countries passing canadas standart of living. it seems as though we are still driving a model a ford on our super highways when the rest of the world is leaving us in their rearview mirrors.

Comments:

Of coarse regulations are choking this country,and should you not belive it just you go and try and start a new business and that will remove any doubts that you may have.
Frank.

Comments:
Overregulation is definitely strangling Canada's economy. Bureaucracies at Federal, Provincial and Municipal levels consistently are more concerned with self-perpetuation than they are about giving the taxpayer value for our money.
The current woeful level of the Canadian dollar is
ample proof of this.
If you include in the bureaucracy problem the myriad of special interest groups that are funded by tax dollars, the problem becomes truly staggering. Unfortunately, government activity(?) accounts for almost 50% of our Gross Domestic Product, and we live in a supposed democracy, where "first past the post" wins elections.
I worry that self-interest will cause the bureacracy problem to grow to the extent that, like a cancerous growth, it will kill the host.

Comments:
Absolutely. Not only is there too much regulation, no matter how well intended, it is a self generating phenonema. The more there is, the more is created to track and administer it. With the exception of Newfoundland, which seems to have made some strides in ridding itself of nuisance buraucracy the Federal and other Provincial Governments are mirred in overregulation. The cost to taxpayers is stagering despite the fact that its value to Canadians is questionable. I suppose it is safe to say that we have enough buraucracy in Canada for a country of four times the population. I suppose to make a significant change would require a Royal Commission, several hundred feasibility studies, several standing committees, sitting committees, a thousand lawyers, and on, and on, and on......

Comments:
The very simple fact is that we are overregulated and underrewarded.
What started off years ago as temporary tax is now a permanent pain in the butt(income tax).
The Government should cut back its organization by 50% staring with the elimination of the SENATE!!

Comments:
As a small business owner in B.C. I have found that over the last 20 years overregulation is becoming more and more of a burden on small business which in turn effects the economy of each province as well as the whole country. Overregulation costs businesses money and then in turn costs the consumer. I feel that there is too much duplication in all levels of government who do the regulating. Our country is loosing its freedom of free enterprise. With all the overregulation small business has no incentive to expand, higher more employees or improve on their services.

Comments:
God Yes!!
Government seems to have this irresistable urge to stifel the entrepreneurial spirit of Canadians who choose to make their way in life along the avenue of small business. I'm only trying to make a living, [and oh yes! along the way pay my fair share of taxes]

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