In the spring of 2010, your chamber issued a survey to find out what issues were most important to you. One of the top issues to come out of that exercise was the issue of unnecessary bureacracy (red tape) at city hall.
Your advocacy committee quickly established a Red Tape Task Force to drill down and develop specific areas of concern; interviews with businesses and direct surveys were completed and results were collected. The end result was a report that identified twenty-two issues and processes that businesses felt needed to be addressed.
On Wednesday, September 29, 2010, GSCC Chair Andre Dumais presented the final findings of the Red Tape Report to council at a regualr council meeting. The report was received warmly and council asked that senior department staff begin to work immediately with the chamber to develop solutions to each point.
As a result of the discussions with city staff, all of the twenty-two points have been reviewed and timelines and objectives have been set. Your chamber also now sits as a member of the Developers Liaison Advisory Committee (DLAC) which is a regular forum for contractors, developers and city management to meet and discuss.
As for next steps, a follow-up presentation to city council will be made on April 17, 2012 detailing the progress, challenges and remaining work required to reduce red tape.
We continue to encourage you to be involved and share your experiences and issues.