In his address to the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, Municipal Affairs Minister Kaycee Madu announced several red-tape reductions for municipalities, with the promise of dozens more to come.
The province is taking real steps to cut red tape, such as reducing a number of administrative requirements in government programs.
“This spring, our government began making government more efficient, more transparent and fairer for all Albertans. Our goal is simple: to identify and cut the red tape that prevents Albertans from easily navigating basic government functions, stifles job creators from contributing to the economy and generally makes life unnecessarily difficult for all of us.”
Examples of government reducing red tape include:
- Merging the application processes of Designated Industrial Requisition Credit and the Provincial Education Requisition Credit to eliminate the need to submit the same required information twice.
- Increasing the Designated Industrial Property Tax Requisition cancelation threshold, so if a municipality’s total requisition is less than $1,000, they will not need to incur administrative costs and red tape to process small requisition amounts.
- No longer requiring municipalities to submit a spending plan to receive their 2019 Municipal Sustainability Initiative operating allocation. At the end of the year, municipalities will simply report on how they used the funding.
- Making changes that will result in quicker review and approvals of applications, making it easier to administer grant-funded projects that support local engineering and contracting jobs.
“Together, these initiatives will reduce red tape and restore the Alberta Advantage to make this province one of the freest and fastest-moving economies in the world.”