Government Services
December 2, 2008

The following statement was issued by the Honourable Kevin O�Brien, Minister of Government Services. It was also read in the House of Assembly:

Three Municipalities Enter into BizPaL Agreement

Over the summer I had the honour to announce that Newfoundland and Labrador has entered into an agreement with the Government of Canada to join BizPaL. This online application is an important tool for entrepreneurs as it provides information on business permits and licences that need to be obtained in order to establish a business. As a result, business owners have the ability to start up faster and with the knowledge that they have all the right permits and licences.

Since this announcement, my department has been working diligently to identify all of the permits and licences that the Provincial Government issues. We have also been identifying possible municipalities that will be participating in the initial launch, which will occur in the new year. Today, I am pleased to announce that the towns of Stephenville and Happy Valley-Goose Bay along with the City of St. John�s will be the first municipalities in this province to sign up with BizPaL.

I am very excited that we have these three municipalities on board for the launch for a couple of reasons. Firstly, in other Canadian jurisdictions where BizPaL is already in operation, those provinces only launched the service with one municipality, usually their capital city. But we have been able to learn from their experience and best practices. As a result, we are easily able to launch BizPaL with two other municipalities in addition to our capital city.

These municipalities are representative of the diversity in our province, ranging from urban centres, more rural areas and the "Big Land" of Labrador.

I want to assure other interested municipalities that we will be able to add them to BizPaL fairly quickly once it is launched. In October, I gave a presentation at the Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador convention and I was encouraged by the interest municipal leaders have in this important new online service. I hope that the interest I saw at the convention will translate into many municipalities being willing to participate in BizPaL. As I stated at the convention, the process is relatively simple and with minimal commitment of resources from municipalities to upload and maintain their information.

BizPaL is an exciting initiative that I wish had been in existence when I was setting up my own businesses. It is one I feel very strongly will benefit the business community and I look forward to the day when we launch BizPaL in Newfoundland and Labrador.

2008 12 02                                                 1:50 p.m.
 


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