York-Simcoe MPP Caroline Mulroney was the keynote speaker at a Bradford Board of Trade event in Bradford West Gwillimbury today

The Ontario government’s decision to pause the minimum wage is just one way it is sending a message of ‘lean and efficient regulation,’ said York-Simcoe MPP Caroline Mulroney on Wednesday.

She was the keynote speaker at the Bradford Board of Trade’s second Re-Con Forum about real estate, construction and growth in Bradford West Gwillimbury.

Focusing on how the provincial government has cut red tape, Mulroney pointed to several program changes, such as giving tax breaks to minimum wage earners, and creating new “job protected” packages for bereavement and sick leave.

“This legislation is only the beginning,” she said, noting the province recently had 380,000 regulations — twice as many as British Columbia.

Many of the regulations are “outdated” and “unnecessary,” she said.

“We are sending a message that we are here for lean and efficient regulation for building a ‘How can I help you?’ mentality and culture across the government, which has not existed for the last decade and a half,” she told Re-Con attendees at The Club at Bond Head.

Premier Doug Ford even recently won the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ Golden Scissors Award for his work in reducing governmental red tape.

In Mulroney’s role as attorney general, she said she is also working closely with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to “get out of the way of business and regulation” by having casino operators, for example, be allowed to make some of their own policies.

The government wants to move away from telling them how many security guards to hire, where they must stand, and when they can go for bathroom breaks, she said.

“What we are (doing is) cutting regulations that just don’t make sense,” Mulroney said.

As well, she told the crowd the provincial government plans to announce expanded broadband and cellular access later this year.

The need for broadband access for small businesses was one key point in the presentation of another speak, Trevor McPherson of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

“High-speed Internet is fundamental,” he said, adding a 10 per cent increase in household broadband access can result in economic growth of 1 ½ per cent.

He said the chamber wants to work with the provincial government to bring better broadband access, as well as create sustainable spending models instead of simply making cuts, and to make a variable small business tax rate that is tied to growth of the business, not how much it earns.

“We must work together to further leverage (the provincial government) … for economic prosperity,” he said. “We need to be on our game now more than ever.”