There’s rarely a day that goes by that I don’t hear about red tape from a Nova Scotia small-business owner.

There was the dentist who had an unannounced, threatening and poorly timed visit by an occupational health and safety inspector — his first visit in 34 years.

There was the landlord who just learned of new legislation to limit his ability and lengthen his time frame for how he deals with people who don’t pay their rent on time.

There was the esthetician who just learned — days before the consultation deadline — about new regulations for her industry.

And there was the small-business owner who wants to offer Segway tours but is caught between municipal and provincial regulatory no man’s land.

That’s just been in the past few weeks.

As you might expect, red tape is one of the top issues for small business.

It’s why we at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business created Red Tape Awareness Week. It’s why we put together a report card so we can stack the provinces up against one another in their efforts to tame the beast. And it’s why we just released a mid-year report to encourage efforts throughout the year.

Nova Scotia used to ace the report card. We used to measure the burden, set targets for reduction and publicly report our progress. We were the picture of how you ensure the overall burden of red tape doesn’t grow, which is its default. We were a leader in Canada, with our small business owners amazingly reporting a drop in concern with red tape.

That was then. Now, we trail the pack. We’re a D+.

Sure, there have been some highlights.

We’ve streamlined liquor regulations so it no longer takes months to get a liquor license. Civil servants are working feverishly to provide one point of access for businesses with government services. Work is ongoing to synthesize rules with our regional counterparts. These are good things that deserve recognition.

But nothing can replace overall accountability. While Service Nova Scotia is doing work to reduce its piece of the red tape burden, other departments and agencies are flooding in to fill the space left behind.

Why should you care? Well, every minute a small business spends on red tape is time not spent training staff, serving customers or figuring out how it can grow or improve.

These lost opportunities affect all of us. They are efficiencies not made, jobs not created, training not provided or service not improved. And for a province that has trailed the country in economic growth for a decade, these aren’t things we can afford to throw away.

Heck, this is why we talk about red tape when we meet with the finance minister. After all, for a province that doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room to significantly reduce the tax burden, getting rid of useless red tape is a great way to stimulate the economy. It’s a nobrainer.

Ever the optimists, we’re still hoping for a happy ending to this story.

After all, Nova Scotia has committed to zero net growth. We’re waiting to learn what its starting point is and how it’s going to achieve this. And if the new plan includes a measure of the overall burden, meets its zero net growth target and publicly reports its progress, we will be on our way to a better grade.

And maybe, just maybe, red tape will be an issue I hear about every other day.

Leanne Hachey is Atlantic vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.