The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Paul Davis, Minister of Service NL:

BizPaL Expanded to 12 More Communities

I am pleased to rise today in this Honourable House to provide an update on the BizPaL program.

Mr. Speaker, BizPaL is an innovative service that provides entrepreneurs with simplified access to information on permits, licences or other approvals needed from all three levels of government to establish and run their businesses. The service saves time and money, and improves business planning. This unique partnership among federal, provincial, territorial, regional and municipal governments is designed to cut through the paper burden and red tape that business owners may encounter.

The success of this program has been seen through its growth and expansion across Newfoundland and Labrador. Service NL continues to invite communities from all areas of the province to join the program at no cost and works to support them on implementation.

During the past year, Mr. Speaker, we have seen continued expansion with 12 new municipalities added to increase the total number of partner communities to 38. These new municipalities are Deer Lake, Kippens, Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s, Bay Roberts, Bonavista, Pasadena, Flatrock, Cormack, Steady Brook, Humber Arm South, Burin and Marystown. Along with the previous 26 communities, these municipalities are ready to work with entrepreneurs locally and from around the world.

In addition to simplifying access to business forms and information, BizPaL raises the profile of partner municipalities to national and international levels. The national BizPaL site is accessed, on average, 4,000 times each week. Our statistics show us that these visitors are coming to the site from all over the province, across the country and around the world, from countries as far away as India, South Korea and Russia. These visitors are interested in doing business in the province, and BizPaL offers an online, step-by-step guide to help them with every aspect of conducting their activities in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mr. Speaker, Service NL has a mandate to make government services more readily available to the people of the province. BizPaL is a great example of these efforts and will continue to be an important tool for service delivery by government. But most important, BizPaL is a means for business people to obtain valuable information to assist them as they work to establish and maintain successful business ventures.

2012 05 10                         2:00 p.m.