Reducing red tape to grow the economy

By Nathan Cooper Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA

In our constituency, like many across Alberta, the effects of the most recent recession are undeniable. Many busi¬nesses have closed, and some communities continue to lose population as younger generations find themselves forced to seek opportunity elsewhere.
For our communities to survive and for our region to thrive, restoring economic growth isn’t optional. Unfortunately, restoring growth is not a simple as snapping our fingers. It takes a comprehensive understanding of business, labour and market forces.
To date, much of the economic debate in the legislature has been overly simplified around the government’s Job Creation Tax Cut. This corporate tax rate reduction is designed to make Alberta one of the best places in North America to operate a business. The government and official opposition certainly have a difference of opinion over this particular initiative, and I expect the debate over these tax rates to continue.
However, there is another factor in economic growth that too often goes ignored: productivity. While you can grow the economy solely by increasing the size of the workforce, only strong productivity growth can increase per capita GDP and incomes.
This isn’t exactly news to the business community, which has been begging government to reduce the unnecessary, bureaucratic red tape that is holding our economy back. The impact is very real: according to one economic analysis, it cost businesses $4.4 billion to comply with Alberta’s regulation in 2017.
On that front, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says Alberta is starting to make real progress. This year the CFIB awarded Alberta a B- grade for red tape reduction. The previous three years Alberta received an F, and since 2011 has never received a grade higher than D. While we are the most improved jurisdiction in Confederation, we still have plenty of work to do.
Fortunately, to date the public has been more than forthcoming about the outdated and often counterproductive regulations. If you know of a regulation that is holding Alberta back, please visit the CutRedTape.Alberta.ca website. To date, it has collected 4,500 submissions.
There is no single solution to restoring meaningful economic growth in Alberta, and the truth is that we cannot uni¬laterally control global market forces. But we can remove the self-imposed regulatory barriers that hold our province back.
This is something we can get right, and we can do it right now.
(Nathan Cooper is MLA for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills and Speaker of the Alberta Legislative Assembly. A majority of Wheatland County is in his riding)