CFIB’S Red Tape Awareness Week begins
Posted January 21, 2019 3:12 pm.
Last Updated January 21, 2019 3:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – The 10th annual Red Tape Awareness Week, a Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) initiative, is underway.
“(The goal of) Red Tape Awareness Week is to highlight those regulations that aren’t adding value, that are weighing business owners down,” said CFIB Alberta Director Amber Ruddy. “When you have small business owners saying that the burden of regulation is preventing them from growing their business, it’s something that government’s need to take seriously.”
Ruddy adds as part of the week they have the Paperweight Awards, and although Alberta didn’t make the short-list of finalists, our province isn’t immune to complaints.
“We have had a number of business owners complaining about the new employment rules that have come into place last year, including having to pay people for holidays whether they worked that day, or not,” she said. “These awards shine a light on government’s that are weighing the system down in crazy regulations, and we’ve gathered nominations from across the country, and there are a lot of crazy things out there that are on the list.”
Ruddy says the Town of Smithers B.C. is on the list for the third year in a row, for a law which requires you to have a sidewalk across the street from your business if you do a renovation over a certain amount.
“The reason this is crazy is because there’s all sorts of random sidewalks in this town that don’t connect to anything on either end, it’s just a small strip of sidewalk across from a business, and so we don’t think that this is the right approach to infrastructure,” she said.
