WINNIPEG: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) responded today to the final report of the Mayor's Red Tape Commission. The CTF fully supports all of the recommendations and urges City Council to adopt these measures immediately.

"The CTF is pleased that the Commission's report will not only help streamline operations for businesses of all sizes, but also has the potential to save all taxpayers money," stated Provincial Director Adrienne Batra. "We strongly urge City Council to move quickly to adopt and implement the recommendations put forward in the final report."

Some of the Commission's recommendations include:

* Simplify the Entertainment Funding by-law (Entertainment tax)
* Eliminate business licenses in the City of Winnipeg
* Adopt an "easy-pay" policy to offer customers a consistent standard for payment options
* Set a target of reducing regulatory requirements by 15 per cent by 2011

Red tape has been described as a needlessly time-consuming bureaucratic procedure that can potentially hinder productivity. In the CTF's submission to the Commission in January of 2005, one consist theme did arise from our supporters - if they ran their businesses like City Hall operates, they would likely be out of business.

"There is a significant different between what is over-regulation and better-regulation, and the CTF is confident the latter shall prevail once these concepts are adopted as part of the City's day-to-day operations," concluded Batra.


The CTF's submission to the Red Tape Commission is available at http://www.taxpayer.com/pdf/Full%20Report.pdf.