Cost recovery and fees for Health Canada
Learn about the practice of cost recovery at Health Canada, including details on fees, service standards, fee remissions, and how to pay.
On this page
- Cost recovery
- Guiding principles
- Government of Canada direction on fees
- Programs that charge fees
- List of fees
- Service standards
- Remissions for missed service standards
- How to pay
- Related information
Cost recovery
Cost recovery is the practice of establishing and collecting fees. Health Canada charges fees to recover up to the full cost incurred to deliver its programs. Generally, this ensures that businesses pay for services or activities that benefit them.
Health Canada has been charging fees to industry since the 1950s. Since then, cost recovery has become a normal business practice for various Government departments. In addition, many international health regulators charge fees.
Guiding principles
Health Canada's approach to cost recovery is guided by the following principles:
- Accountability and Transparency:
- Transparent fee setting and costing methodology
- Meaningful and inclusive stakeholder engagements
- Ongoing stakeholder communication
- Meaningful and measurable service standards
- Accessible and constructive complaint resolution and dispute management processes
- Clear and accessible remission policies
- Predictability and Sustainability:
- Accurate and accessible fee schedules
- Consistent application of costing methodologies
- Established processes for regularly reviewing and updating fees
- Routine assessment of new business lines for cost recovery eligibility
- Stewardship and Fairness:
- Appropriate fee setting ratios, with fees that do not exceed full cost
- Consideration of fee mitigation measures, where appropriate
- Ongoing promotion of cost recovery business improvements
- Delivery of service in accordance with established service standards
- Ongoing cost monitoring and identification of cost containment measures
- Reimbursement in accordance with the remission policy
Government of Canada direction on fees
In 2017, the Government of Canada introduced the Service Fees Act (SFA) to replace the User Fees Act. In 2019, the Government of Canada introduced the Directive on Charging and Special Financial Authorities (Directive). The SFA and Directive:
- established the requirement to table an annual fee report in Parliament
- introduced mandatory remissions, annual adjustments and service standards
- increased transparency, accountability and predictability for the fees charged by the Government of Canada
Programs that charge fees
The department determines the cost of providing the activity or service and sets the appropriate fee.
Health Canada programs that charge fees include:
- Cannabis
- Pesticides
- Human Drugs
- Medical Devices
- Veterinary Drugs
- Biocides
- Hazardous Materials
- National Dosimetry Services
- Tobacco
List of fees
For updated fees, visit the List of fees webpage. For additional information, visit Health Canada's Report on Fees.
Service standards
Health Canada has developed service standards where appropriate to provide quality client service. Service standards state the level of performance that you can reasonably expect from Health Canada under normal circumstances.
Visit Health Canada's Report on Fees for more information on service standards and performance.
Remissions for missed service standards
A remission is a partial or full return of a fee paid because of a missed service standard.
The establishment of the SFA and Directive outlined the requirement for departments to develop a remission policy for missed service standards.
In response to this requirement, Health Canada established Health Canada's Remission Policy for Missed Service Standards, which came into force in 2021.
Program areas have developed remission policies that follow the requirements in the departmental remission policy.
To view the program remission policies, please visit:
Programs that are exempt from the SFA are not required to remit for missed service standards but may have their own remission policy under their respective legislation. One example is the Fees in Respect of Drugs and Medical Devices Order. Under this Order, if the Minister finds that the department did not meet the service standard, it will remit 25% of the paid fee.
Cannabis, Tobacco, and National Dosimetry Services are also exempt from the SFA and do not remit for missed service standards.
How to pay
Please visit How to Pay Health Canada Fees for information regarding payment methods.
Related information
Chief Financial Officer Branch – Cost Recovery Office:
cfobcostrecovery-recouvrementdescoutsdgdpf@hc-sc.gc.ca