Issue

Excessive regulations in planning, building and development processes can slow the progress of development in our community. In order to encourage economic prosperity of our region, there are ways to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses and ensure the City of Medicine Hat is viewed as 'Open for Business."

Executive Summary

The Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce is committed to working with community partners and the government to create a business-friendly environment. This commitment recognizes that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a significant economic boon to the local, provincial, and national economies. Having to satisfy regulations and policies, complete forms, and follow processes can be costly for businesses, resulting in the stagnation of economic growth. An effort to nurture business and minimize hurdles by eliminating unnecessary regulatory requirements makes good economic sense for everyone in the district. Currently, many businesses in our community have found certain processes and regulations in the City burdensome, costly and time-consuming, and there may be several opportunities to reduce inefficiencies and maximize mutual prosperity.

Background

Barriers to business can involve legislation, regulation, fees, permits, licenses, paperwork, standards, processing times, guidelines, filing and certification requirements, reporting, investigation, inspection and enforcement practices, and any procedures that affect the efficiency of government services for the individuals, organizations and businesses served.

The regulatory and compliance burden poses a serious problem for small businesses, mainly due to excessive regulatory processes putting immense strain on business resources. The disproportionate impact on small firms is especially important given that SMEs are a critical driver of our economy locally, provincially, and nationally. The costs of complying with regulations represent a significant proportion of overhead expense and net margin for businesses, and slow the development of new infrastructure projects without proper justification.

Cumbersome legislative redundancies, lengthy approval processing times, and complex reporting obligations mean that companies must spend valuable time and resources on understanding and meeting what can be perceived as arbitrary technical requirements. Many must even hire external consultants just to administer the associated paperwork. As a result, companies have fewer internal resources to finance investments in assets, knowledge, and innovation. All of this adds up to less time and resources for investing in business and decreases local economic competitiveness.

The lack of clarity when accessing information and assistance results in frustration for many companies, as there is difficulty in identifying the most appropriate individuals in the government to provide concrete answers. The problem is further compounded by various interpretations of policy guidelines and inconsistencies in approach by some municipal representatives. We must shift to an outcome-sensitive approach that considers variances, alternative solutions and inter-departmental coordination to encourage development.. In enforcement, there must be a clear accountability framework for regulators. With the current legislation, local businesses must absorb the costs in the process-focused approach; regulators have no disincentive to imposing unnecessary requirements, which creates delay, confusion, or contradictory instructions for a regulated company.

Reducing the compliance burden will require concerted action to pinpoint and eliminate existing irritants that clearly affect growth, competitiveness, and innovation. To succeed, the commitment to reduce legislative barriers where possible should be top of mind in government and must aim to reduce the burden of regulatory requirements on businesses. It is an important initiative to follow through on to help businesses grow, prosper, and create jobs without being continually impeded by unnecessary regulations.

Applicants for permits and projects require access to knowledgeable and appropriate employees, including more senior staff, safety code officers (building inspectors), etc. Municipal support staff should be more thorough and better prioritize projects to present the requirements the first time an applicant meets with the City department. Applicants are often frustrated when new requirements are implemented in subsequent meetings on the same project. Excessive role specialization also results in a significant knowledge deficit when City staff change or leave roles.

We understand that proper infrastructure development regulations protect the community while also contributing to competitiveness and economic prosperity. There is an opportunity to create relevant and effective regulatory requirements that enhance efficiency for our community's residents and businesses. 

Analysis

The Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce is committed to ensuring that established businesses that want to expand and grow their enterprises have the opportunity to do so in Southeastern Alberta. New entrepreneurs and established enterprises need an appropriate climate to begin and continue business development. Business formation, growth, and expansion are potential sources of new wealth in our economy. This activity benefits all residents directly, as in the creation of employment opportunities, and indirectly, such as through taxation.

The Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce has collaborated with numerous local organizations, including home builders, infrastructure project planners, construction associations, and more, to gather information. The recommendations provided directly reflect the barriers stunting infrastructure growth in our community.

The businesses in our community need the support of our municipal government through creating an environment that can nurture innovation by putting forward a clear communication strategy, along with consistent, easy-to-comprehend expectations and guidelines, connections for process support from the City, and clear timelines.

Recommendations

The Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce recommends the City of Medicine Hat:

1. Provide a business support officer with background knowledge of business development and government legislation to act as a central point of contact throughout the regulatory process. The officer should be able to provide access to government services both online and within City Hall and assist in advocating through internal City departments for the developer to streamline communications and processes across all departments involved.
2. Improve the permitting process and online resources to communicate the approval timelines for both residential and commercial permitting, along with education on any requirements that would impact the timelines, such as building improvements or requirements to meet any building and safety codes. 
3. Communicate approval timeline standards of 21 business days for commercial building permits and 10 business days for residential permits, depending on the size and scale of developments and report semi-annually on average permit turnaround times. 
4. Ensure an outcome-sensitive, coordinated approach across all departments, rather than a zero-tolerance, approach, working with applicants on possible options, variances, and alternative solutions.
5. Improve the process and approval authority through the technical coordinating committee (TCC) to ensure a coordinated and streamlined approach for review and feedback for development by establishing a central point of contact through a small and coordinated TCC review team, comprised of department leads, whom are given decision-making ability that is in the best interest of City policy and development in our community.
6. Implement and communicate a continual Process Improvement Plan, including a customer service feedback survey that is distributed to each applicant, with an annual review to identify challenges and establish metrics for measuring success. 
7. Assign one primary on-site City inspector per project to ensure consistency in any interpretation and implementation of building and safety codes, as well as timely approval of recommended changes, while taking a team approach to ensure consistency and coverage when Safety Codes officers are not working or when specialization is required.
8. Create greater clarity and streamlined standards for the Occupancy Permit process requirements on permitting when Change of Use permits are required versus a Change of Occupancy for the same use. 
9. Create a sunsetting policy that would require that all policies and bylaws either expire or are reviewed on or before each 10-year period.
10. Ensure ongoing consultation on process improvements and ensure that there is a minimum of one month’s notice when amendments are being proposed to regulations and bylaws or new regulations and bylaws are being considered, and that changes and associated costs are provided in a comparative summary or mark-up style notation. 
11. Allow for a pre-qualified list of certified private contractors to design and construct both deep and shallow utility servicing to expedite development processes while still maintaining the required standards. 
12. Improve processes related to barrier-free design implementation and accessibility options with more clarity to guidelines, similar to the guidelines provided by City of Calgary 
13. Remove the requirement to have an AGLC license in order to obtain a business license, as AGLC should be the last stop for gaming, liquor and cannabis versus the municipality. 
14. Implement a business-friendly mandate by evaluating the development and economic benefit of projects, as well as the additional cost and regulatory burdens of any new or amended regulations proposed.

Date Approved: March 20, 2013
Date Reviewed: June 14, 2022
Date Revised: June 14, 2022
Date Approved: September 21, 2022
Date Revised and approved: May 21, 2025 

Resources:

 https://www.calgary.ca/development/accessible-design.html