I have worked in the…

I have worked in the engineering field for over 10 years, in both the private and public sectors. I have been exposed to various regulatory agencies for approvals throughout my career, seeking permits for various residential, commercial, industrial and institutional developments. Without fail the bigger the agency the more red tape and bureaucracy I faced seeking those approvals. With small agencies, commonly have a small team of reviewers, that care about local concerns, but against bigger regional agencies, you deal with a massive team of experts and analysts that nit pick everything you submit in an attempt to justify their position. I support the cutting of red tape, getting projects from concept to construction as fast as possible, but I must say I do not think this is the way. With regional budgets and agencies i predict you will see permitting go from a timeline of weeks to months as the army of specialists lord over their mountain of red tape. Bigger government is not better, smaller agencies with local reps makes things quicker, not slower. I would apply this to the municipal government level too, the bigger the municipal government the longer it takes to get something done, our small local municipalities are accessible and reasonable often only requiring one or two people to approve. Please reconsider making government bigger and making the red tape thicker. The MECP's ECA application and approval system needs reform, to provide assurance to applicants that if they meet targets it will be approved, not some bureaucrat's opinion, embed hard targets, that if met receive approval. The Environmental Assessment system needs significant reform, similar to the ECA, it needs to be founded in technical fact not arbitrary commenting from biased sources. This is coming from a municipal administrator, we are making every effort reasonable to cut red tape in my Township, I applaud the governments efforts but I think these are aimed at the wrong targets, give clear and hard target mandates to the MECP, CA and other agencies, remove doubt from developers proposals and approvals is the better path to cutting the tape, not making agencies and government bigger. Cut the tape, change the approval processes to provide confidence for investment, get to: if you meet this target you are approved, get away from "here is a guideline, now let us decide if that is appropriate."