Results, not just reporting

A recent Free Press op-ed (Paul Thomas’s Regulatory reform, NDP style, Think Tank, Feb. 21) compares the Manitoba PC and NDP approaches to regulatory reform that frames the issue as a partisan tug-of-war. From the perspective of Manitoba’s small business owners — nearly 98 per cent of the province’s employers — that framing misses the point entirely.

Business owners want a government — any government — that can prove it is willing to put in the work to reduce the time, cost and frustration required to operate in this province.

Regulatory reform is not an ideological exercise for small business owners.

It is a practical necessity.

Behind every regulation is a real person trying to keep the lights on. It’s the family-run restaurant that loses a Friday lunch rush waiting on an inspector who never arrives, the trades contractor who can’t schedule crews because a permit date keeps sliding, the retailer who spends Saturday nights filling out forms instead of with their kids.

None of these owners is asking government to abandon safeguards.

They are asking for a system that works as hard for them as they work for their employees and communities.

Red tape reduction should not be political.

It is not about picking winners and losers, or tilting the field toward any industry. It is about clearing out rules that are duplicative, outdated or poorly designed so that good rules — those that protect health, safety, consumers and the environment — can do their work more effectively. The goal is a regulatory system that is both strong and simple: fewer hoops, clearer expectations and faster decisions, with the same or better outcomes.

The opinion piece highlights the work of Manitoba’s physician administrative burden task force, which successfully identified enough administrative waste to free up time equivalent to 227,000 additional patient appointments.

This is indeed an excellent example of red tape reduction done right.

But the reason it succeeded is conspicuously absent from the commentary. Using the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s (CFIB) own research and methodology, the task force relied on measuring and establishing a baseline count of the unnecessary burdens physicians were facing, like how much time paperwork consumed, which processes were duplicative/unnecessary and what changes would make the greatest impact.

In other words, it did exactly what CFIB has long recommended: measurement first, reform second.

That is why Manitoba’s previous regulatory accountability framework mattered.

It required governments to measure regulatory requirements, report publicly on their totals and offset new rules by removing existing ones.

Manitoba’s new legislation is the regulatory equivalent of trying to lose weight without ever stepping on a scale.

Without measurement, there is no way to know whether progress is being made or whether things are getting worse. The old system required governments to track their regulatory “weight” through counts, reporting and a one-for-one rule that forced discipline.

The new model replaces all of that with a once-a-year check-in that asks departments to describe what they did, rather than prove whether they reduced anything. It is a soft, unenforceable framework — light on requirements, light on accountability and unlikely to deliver sustained reform over time once political attention moves on.

Small business owners do not measure regulatory reform by government announcements or internal process changes.

They measure it by whether it becomes easier to open a location, hire an employee, obtain a permit or comply with the rules that govern their work.

Jurisdictions that take regulatory accountability seriously send an important signal.

They demonstrate that government understands regulation’s cumulative impact and is committed to maintaining a competitive, growth-friendly environment. At a time when more small businesses are winding down operations rather than opening, and business owners are advising their own children against starting a business, reducing unnecessary regulatory burden is one of the most practical and low-cost ways governments can support economic growth and combat the entrepreneurial drought.

CFIB stands ready to work with any government — regardless of political stripe — committed to meaningful, results-focused reform and red tape reduction.

Small business owners are not concerned with which party gets credit.

They care about outcomes.

Real progress requires disciplined execution, transparent reporting and a sustained commitment to measuring and reducing unnecessary burden. Regulatory reform should not be judged by intentions or descriptions of effort.

It should be judged by results.

Keyli Loeppky is the director of Interprovincial Affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).