The Government of Alberta is pursuing legislation that aims to modernize how pharmacies are regulated, in addition to other changes designed to create efficiencies throughout nine ministries.
The Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, (Bill 21), includes changes to 15 existing laws within Alberta. Tanya Fir, the associate minister for red tape reduction, told members of the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association (AWNA) on April 26 that the bill focuses on speeding up approvals, removing barriers to economic growth, and supporting digital solutions.
Tabled April 25, the bill affects nine different ministries: Health, Children's Services, Environment and Parks, Agriculture, Municipal Affairs, Service Alberta and Treasury Board and Finance, and Forestry and Rural Economic Development.
One change to the Pharmacy and Drug Act — which outlines how pharmacies are governed — will authorize the Alberta College of Pharmacy to create and enforce standards of practice geared toward pharmacy operations.
Currently, these operations are addressed through government regulation, a process Greg Eberhart, college registrar, described as complicated and time consuming.
The switch to standards will still require time to be approved — a minimum of 60 days — as well as consultation and engagement with the health minister and stakeholders, but overall add up to a “much smoother process,” Eberhart said.
The changes are a continuation of other amendments from the past few years geared towards streamlining the development of standards, such as the Health Statues Amendment made in 2021 (Bill 65), which also moved some requirements for pharmacies from regulations to standards.
Eberhart said the changes within Bill 21 are not something patients will experience when they attend their pharmacy. One example he gave of how the change might be applied included allowing the college to consider more “innovative and contemporary” applications to license a pharmacy that don’t fit within regulations which are “quite old.”
“It’s not uncommon for us in a changing environment to see applications where it feels like you’re trying to fit a square peg in a round hole,” Eberhart said. “Sometimes [the applications] might be reasonable, but they just don't fit within the old regulations, so this allows us to be a little bit more dynamic.”
A suite of changes
Examples of other changes proposed under the Red Tape Reduction Act include allowing landlords to use electronic methods for returning security deposits to tenants, and implementing allowing local specific directives and guidelines for managing activities on Crown land.
The bill will also give municipalities the ability to establish intermunicipal business licences to cover a certain number of jurisdictions. Fir said mobile businesses, such as local food trucks, would stand to benefit from the change.
“Instead of making that individual take the time and money to apply for a new licence every time they move their truck around to a different jurisdiction … [this would save] the small business entrepreneurs time and money,” Fir said Tuesday.
Yvonne Irnich, owner of DaVinci Gelato, said the company’s food truck typically operates in Morinville, Devon, St. Albert, and Edmonton, but has scaled back to the latter two cities in the past two years due to pandemic-related staff shortages.
Irnich said the change is “definitely positive,” but noted it would also depend on what combination of municipalities choose to offer it, and how much a licence would ultimately end up costing.
Tuition reporting
When initially presenting the act on April 25, Fir said the government would use Bill 21 to eliminate the collection of financial data, including tuition amounts, “because they are not public dollars.”
In response to a question April 26, Fir said the government will still require schools to report private sources of revenue, including tuition amounts, through audited annual financial statements, but that Bill 21 will eliminate “one specific additional schedule” that independent schools currently submit specific to tuition.
“That particular schedule that we’re removing was duplicated,” Fir said. “In the bigger umbrella of red tape reduction, we look to remove things that are duplicated or redundant or unnecessary … that reporting requirement still remains — it was in place before and it’s in place now.”
