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This article was published 19/9/2017 (1097 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba government has taken a big step forward in its efforts to tackle what its own finance minister admits is a "horrendous" amount of internal red tape.

Finance Minister Cameron Friesen told a Manitoba Chamber of Commerce breakfast event on Tuesday the government has completed a baseline count of how many regulatory regulations there are across its entire operations, which include government departments, Crown corporations, the Workers Compensation Board and various government agencies and boards.

The tally is 906,824 requirements within 12,393 documents.

"That’s quite horrendous," he said, adding the government remains fully committed to doing something about it.

The first step was to introduce new legislation last spring, called the Regulatory Accountability Act, which requires it to establish and maintain a comprehensive inventory of all of its regulatory requirements.

It’s also now required to release those numbers on a yearly basis to show what progress is being made to reduce the provincial red-tape burden on businesses, individuals, other levels of government and non-profit agencies.

Friesen told the breakfast crowd the government recognizes it isn’t enough to just identify the magnitude of the red-tape burden. Concrete steps also must be taken to reduce it.

That’s why the new legislation also requires that every time the government introduces a new regulation, two others must be eliminated, he said. That rule will remain in effect until 2020, when the government will move to a one-to-one system where one regulation is eliminated every time a new one is introduced.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Finance Minister Cameron Friesen says the province found a ‘horrendous’ amount of red tape in its operations — 906,824 regulatory requirements in 12,393 documents.

"Our goal is to be Canada’s most improved province for regulatory accountability by 2020," Friesen added.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which releases a national report card each January on the red-tape-reduction performance of each province, said Tuesday that Manitoba’s new baseline count of regulatory requirement is the most comprehensive in Canada. With it, the province has taken another major step towards being a North American leader in cutting red tape, it said.

"Red tape is a huge hidden tax on everyone. It increases prices, reduces job opportunities and stresses people out," said Laura Jones, the CFIB’s executive vice-president and chief strategic officer.

"Manitoba deserves high praise for making that hidden tax more visible today. It’s a very promising step towards making things better not just for those who directly get tangled up in red tape, but all Manitobans who suffer as a result."

The CFIB, which had previously given Manitoba a failing grade when it comes to red-tape reduction, also praised it for being the first province to legislate a cap on the number of government regulatory requirements.

"To date, British Columbia has been Canada’s undisputed leader in red-tape reduction, but Manitoba has announced a more comprehensive measure and has beat B.C. in being the first province to legislate a cap," Jones said. "If things continue this way, it will be the Manitoba model that everyone is talking about."

Jonathan Alward, CFIB’s director of provincial affairs for Manitoba, said while Manitoba still has a lot of work to do in actually cutting red tape, "they have all the right ingredients."

The CFIB estimates the regulatory requirements cost Canadian businesses $37 billion annually, with one-third of that ($11 billion) considered unnecessary red tape. It says that in Manitoba, all federal, provincial and municipal regulations cost businesses $1.2 billion annually, with $360 million of that considered to be red tape.

"Seven out of 10 business owners in Manitoba say red tape is limiting their ability to create jobs," Alward noted. "The government’s focus on this couldn’t be more timely or more important."

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca