Fir and Neudorf talk red tape reduction, labour force at Chamber event

“Every time we reduce anything, we get challenged on that, but we have to be able to know that the decision we’re making is truly making life easier and better for Albertans.”

She commented on the UCP government’s goal of reducing red tape by one-third, saying “we’re already about halfway there, I think we just hit the 17 per cent mark, so some great work has been done but there’s still a lot more work to do.”

“As we’re heading into Alberta’s Recovery Plan, cutting and reducing red tape is going to be key to that and making life better, easier, cheaper, saving time and money and headache and stress for Albertans and business, that’s what we’re aiming to do as well as tackling the bigger items around, you know, environment and parks, energy, agriculture and forestry, some of the areas and ministries that have a whole lot more red tape to be cut.”

Fir added that, “we’re targeting high impact initiatives but we’re also targeting, again, smaller things that are going to make life easier for businesses and Albertans.”

She said she is always open to hearing feedback, good or bad, from residents across the province.

“I’m here representing all of my fellow ministers…it doesn’t just have to be red tape. If you’ve got something specific that you want to ask or talk about with respect to a different ministry, feel free.”

BUSINESS LICENSES AND REGULATIONS

One attendee asked about the need for business licenses per jurisdiction you are working in, and how that can cause some issues for industries like construction and restoration.

MLA Nathan Neudorf said he’s been tasked to look at that issue, regarding regional bylaws. He said that, “we’ve done an incredible amount of work behind the scenes to do that, where particularly the inspection and permitting process – business license is a bit more difficult because that is a revenue generator for small towns in particular, so that’s not likely to change.”

He said work is being done to set up a permitting system that would be more uniform across the province, making it simpler for construction businesses to build, wherever they are.

“One of the other red tape initiatives is to make sure that we’re going through our building code to make sure our building codes are specific to what we face in Alberta. Many of you may not realize that a few years ago, Alberta went to an auto-adoption of the National Building Code, which comes out of Toronto and Ottawa, that area. A lot of those requirements really don’t fit our market here.”

Lethbridge Chamber CEO Cyndi Vos (far right) with Nathan Neudorf, Tanya Fir and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange. LaGrange had to leave the event early before speaking to attendees. (Lethbridge News Now)

Neudorf also addressed concerns of a worker shortage in the construction industry.

“The entire labour thing is a huge process, a challenge. Just in two days, I think I’ve heard of a couple hundred open positions within Lethbridge, so we have already crossed that threshold to our pre-pandemic employment status again, and the number of jobs out there is huge.”

He brought up concerns he has with the CERB payments, initiated to help those out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If you can make almost as much money sitting at home playing video games as you can going out to work, it really de-incentivises that entrepreneurial and working spirit, so it’s something we need to change because there are lots of jobs available through Lethbridge, throughout Alberta and we could be roaring back but we’re choking out because we don’t have that workforce.”

Fir remarked that when it comes to labour and the construction industry, “one of the greatest signs and indicators of a recovering economy is a booming construction industry.”

“The Premier has tasked me with that being my number one focus is, what is the red tape that you need to remove or deal with that’s going to aid in Alberta’s Recovery Plan, and we know construction is one of those key areas.”

Neudorf said another focus of the provincial government is to strengthen inter-provincial and international partnerships.

“The biggest challenge we find with what we call sub-national relations is our international agreements, so the Northwest Trade Agreement has language in it that really handcuffs what we can do as a province.”

“We’re continuing to work on that. Obviously, Ottawa may or may not be partial to Alberta’s interests or any singular province, they look at things a little bit differently, but we are becoming more and more engaged on that sub-national level all the time.”

He added that being Alberta’s representative on the Council of State Governments West and Midwest allows him to be part of discussions on improving relationships with outside governments.

“We’re not only looking east and west, we’re also looking north and south – with Alaska, with Washington, Montana, all the way down to California and Mexico, particularly at that sub-national level so that we can push back a little bit to national [and] international relations and say ‘what you guys decide actually impacts us as a trade region, and we don’t always agree with that’, we want to be able to get our products to different markets.”

“The biggest one right now is [U.S.] President Biden saying we want to be getting off oil and gas, and then wanting to buy more, begging OPEC for more oil from Russia, when they shut down the Keystone XL [pipeline]. So, those kind of national [and] international decisions have massive impacts on us sub-nationals. We’re working to become more collaborative.”

Fir and Neudorf were joined by Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, however, LaGrange had to leave midway through the event before speaking to attendees.

by Justin Goulet

Fir and Neudorf talk red tape reduction, labour force at Chamber event

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