You can’t work in this province…

Yet another example of interprovincial trade restrictions that exist for no reason other than to prevent competition and create work for government bureaucrats.

Contemporary Security Canada, which also provided private security for the Vancouver Olympic Games, was selected by the RCMP to provide approximately 1,100 private security guards to screen pedestrians throughout the summits in Huntsville and Toronto.

But security guards and the companies they work for are required by provincial law to be licensed, and the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services said Contemporary Security Canada is not currently approved.

Wait - a company that can do work in BC (and by extension Alberta and Saskatchewan via TILMA, I assume) needs to do extra paperwork and wait for the Ontario government to approve them?  Why doesn’t Ontario simply accept that BC is a reasonably equivalent jurisdiction?

Ms. Blondeau said the ministry is working to do background checks on the company and the security guards they have hired for the high-profile international event. But she said they found out about the issue only after the company was hired.

“My understanding is that the RCMP has a long-standing relationship with this company,” she said. “So they secured them and we found out about it after the fact. It’s an inconvenience.”

Wait - so the RCMP uses this firm a lot (and thus trusts them), but now we need the provincial government to approve them too?  Since the RCMP is spending the money here, on behalf of the federal government, why is it necessary to have another level of government involved in the transaction?

The company must pay a fee and go through a rigorous process to become a licensed agency, and Ms. Blondeau said they will be able to work at the summits only if they are approved.

“If they are an agency that is approved to do business in Ontario, then they can proceed,” she said.

And bureaucracy stifles business some more…