A License To Be A Barber? Ridiculous Red Tape Holds Canada Back

Excerpt:

A new index published by the Fraser Institute, the first of its kind for Canada, reveals the numbers. Researchers analyzed licensing statutes for 158 job categories across all 10 provinces and found that Alberta, despite its reputation for less government and more freedom, requires a licence for more jobs (73) than any other province, including appliance repairmen, barbers and motorcycle mechanics. Quebec (67) and Ontario (62) are close behind. At the other end of the spectrum, Prince Edward Island requires a licence for only 41 jobs, slightly fewer than Newfoundland and Labrador (43) and Manitoba (48).

To become a barber in Alberta, for example, you must finish 1,450 hours in an apprenticeship, spend 10 weeks in a classroom (which costs about $2,000), complete an exam (in both theory and practice) and pay about $300 in fees. If you can’t get a barber to let you apprentice with them, you must pay about $10,000 to obtain your apprentice hours at a beauty school. Barbers are licensed in four provinces – Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia. In the other six, people get their hair cut by unlicensed barbers every day, with no evidence they are worse off for it.

Licensing purportedly protects the public from incompetent or bad providers, but evidence refutes that claim. In reality, rather than protect consumers, licensure requirements protect incumbent businesses from competition.

Read the full article at The Globe and Mail.

Read the Provincial Occupational Licensing Index here.