Findlay tackles red tape

National Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay speaks with Prince George Chamber of Commerce members Wednesday about the federal government’s efforts to reduce red tape. Bill PHILLIPS/Free Press

Kerry-Lynne Findlay is proud of a pair of golden scissors that sit on her desk.

The scissors come from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and are in recognition of the federal government’s efforts to cut red tape for small business.

Findlay is the minister of national revenue and so much of her work is spent trying to eliminate red tape.

“Red tape, as the prime minister has said, is the silent killer of jobs, we know that,” Findlay said during stop at the Prince George Chamber of Commerce Wednesday. “When you’re trying to run a business, what you’re most interested in is clients, customers, branding, marketing, advertising and getting your products to market or your services known. Sitting in a backroom doing paperwork is not what’s uppermost in your mind.”

She said the Canada Revenue Agency, which she is responsible for, and government in general has done a lot to reduce red tape, hence the business association award. Among those measures, Findlay said, are the elimination of more than 800,000 remittances for more than 50,000 businesses; simplifying its communications to businesses; the creation of a mobile app for businesses; expanding online payment methods with the launch of the pre-authorized debit option; requiring all business phone enquiries agents to use a standard Agent ID when dealing with a business; and introducing the new Liaison Officer Initiative to help businesses get it right from the start.

In September 2014, the Government of Canada also introduced the Small Business Job Credit, a two-year measure that effectively lowers the Employment Insurance premiums for small businesses for two years.

She said government does pay attention to make sure that regulations aren’t tossed out along with the red tape.

“We have certain regulations that are there to safeguard and, obviously, we’re not going to change those,” he said. “But sometimes things are in place just because they’ve been there a long time.”

She added that with a lot of services now being digitized, regulations for a paper world aren’t always relevant.