Premier Tim Houston’s government just did something rare in Canadian politics: it introduced a bill to make government smaller.

The Service Efficiency Act updates more than a dozen provincial laws to cut red tape and bureaucracy inside government.

It scraps some boards and commissions. It stops duplication, like forcing municipal auditors to register with the provincial government when their own professional regulator already keeps watch. It streamlines licensing processes by reducing steps taxpayers need to take.

And it’s not a one-off.

The bill follows the Making Business Easier Act, passed last fall, which streamlined regulations for the natural resource sector and improved permitting and licensing.

None of this is flashy.

But that’s the point.

Every board that exists for no reason, every duplicate approval and every outdated form costs money and time. Taxpayers pay for the bureaucrats who shuffle the paper while businesses pass their compliance costs on to customers at the till.

The provincial government says its red-tape cutting has already saved businesses $21 million since 2021.

Good. Taxpayers should cheer when a government prunes its own hedges.

But let’s be honest about the size of the hedge.

Since Houston took office, government spending has grown at a pace no family budget could survive.

In his first year, the Houston government spent $13.7 billion. This year’s budget plans to spend $18.9 billion.

That’s $5.2 billion more, up 38 per cent in five years.

A government that spends 38 per cent more is not a smaller government. It’s a bigger government with tidier filing cabinets.

And all that spending is piling up on the credit card.

Houston inherited a debt of $16.6 billion. This year’s budget borrows $1.2-billion and pushes the debt to $27.9 billion by year-end. That works out to about $25,000 per person.

Debt interest charges alone will cost taxpayers more than $1 billion this year, or more than $2.8 million every single day. That’s roughly $900 for every Nova Scotian, gone before government hires a single teacher or paves a single metre of road.

Interest is the one government program that helps nobody.

Finance Minister John Lohr said it himself in his budget speech: “Every dollar spent servicing debt is a dollar we cannot spend responding to new challenges or protecting essential services.”

He’s right.

But here’s the frustrating part: the Houston government understands the problem. Its own budget promised to shrink the civil service by five per cent. The Service Efficiency Act proves government knows how to find waste and cut it.

What’s missing is the will to do it at full scale.

The good news is Nova Scotia doesn’t need tax hikes to get back on track. It needs spending discipline.

Here’s how.

First, stop handing out corporate welfare. Nova Scotia taxpayers are on the hook for more than $674 million annually in business subsidies. Cutting red tape helps every business compete and cutting corporate welfare will do that too.

Second, bring non-health spending back to 2022 levels. That would save about $848 million in a single year.

Third, tackle bloated government compensation costs. Salaries and wages are now tied for the largest line item in the budget. Bringing pay in line with the private sector through attrition and reform could save another $544 million.

Those savings alone would wipe out this year’s borrowing and have savings leftover to pay down debt.

So here’s the message from taxpayers: Pass the bill, then keep going.

Take the same knife the government used to cut red tape and take it to the budget. Set a firm date to stop borrowing and stick to it. Stop driving up the debt by billions and sending the bill, plus interest, to kids who have not even been born yet.

Houston has proven he can do the easy version of bureaucracy cuts. Nova Scotians now deserve the real thing.