The Ontario
cabinet is perusing a document that calls for major reforms to reduce the
regulatory burden on small businesses, presumably including farms.
There is emphasis
on regulations that might hinder trade.
The document
calls for a fundamental change in bureaucratic mindsets when formulating new
regulations.
For every $1 of
increased costs those new regulations impose, they will have to find $1.25 in
savings by reducing other regulatory burdens.
The new approach
could have had significant impact on the regulations related to using
neonicitinoids for seed treatments to kill pests. Those regulations place more burdens on Ontario than farmers in other provinces and the United States competing for the same markets.
Ontario farmers
complained loudly that those regulations will cost them time and money to hire
consultants and could results in considerable yield losses.
They say the government
lacked scientific evidence that its regulations will reduce the collapse of bee
colonies.
It’s also far
from clear what regulations the government could eliminate to make up for the
cost of new regulations, such as the ones imposed on the use of neonicitinoids.
“This is
the most ambitious regulatory burden reduction package that any government has
done in generations,” Brad Duguid, the province’s Economic Development
Minister, told The Globe and Mail
Frankly, I think it's more of that stuff farmers spread on fields at this time of the year.
