Fees Report - Fiscal year 2019–20

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About this report

This report, which is tabled under section 20 of the Service Fees Act and section 4.2.8 of the Directive on Charging and Special Financial Authorities, contains information about the fees that Privy Council Office (PCO) had the authority to set in 2019–20.

Government of Canada departments may set fees for services, licences, permits, products, the use of facilities; for other authorizations of rights or privileges; or to recover, in whole or in part, costs incurred in relation to a regulatory scheme.

For reporting purposes, fees must be categorized under the following three fee setting mechanisms:

1. Act, regulation or fees notice
   • An act of Parliament delegates the fee setting authority to a department, minister or Governor in Council.
2. Contract
   • Ministers have the authority to enter into contracts, which are usually negotiated between the minister and an individual or organization, and which cover fees and other terms and conditions. In some cases, that authority may also be provided by an act of Parliament.
3. Market-rate or auction or both
   • The authority to set these fees is pursuant to an act of Parliament or regulation, and the minister, department or Governor in Council has no control over the fee amount.

This report contains information about all fees that are under PCO’s authority, including any that are collected by another department.

The information covers fees that are subject to the Service Fees Act.

For fees set by contract, fees set by market-rate, auction or both, the report provides totals only. For fees set by act, regulation or fees notice, it provides totals for fee groupings, as well as detailed information for each fee.

Although the fees that PCO charges under the Access to Information Act are subject to the Service Fees Act, they are not included in this report. Information on PCO’s access to information fees for 2019–20 can be found in our access to information report, which is posted on PCO’s website.

Remissions

A remission is a partial or full return of a fee to a fee payer who paid for a service for which a department deemed that the service standard was not met.

Under the Service Fees Act, departments must develop policies for determining whether a service standard has been met and for determining how much of a fee will be remitted to a fee payer if a service standard is not met. This requirement will not take effect until April 1, 2021, so this report does not include remissions issued under the Service Fees Act. It does, however, include remissions issued under PCO’s enabling legislation.

Overall totals, by fee setting mechanism

The following table presents the total revenue, cost and remissions for all fees that PCO had the authority to set in 2019–20, by fee setting mechanism.

Totals, by fee grouping, for fees set by act, regulation or fees notice

The following table presents, for each fee grouping, the total revenue, cost and remissions for all fees that PCO had the authority to set in 2019–20 that are set by any of the following:

• act
• regulation
• fees notice

A fee grouping is a grouping of all the fees that a department has the authority to set for activities relating to a single business line, directorate or program.

Details on each fee set by act, regulation or fees notice

This section provides detailed information on each fee that PCO had the authority to set in 2019–20 and that was set by any of the following:

• act
• regulation
• fees notice

Upon the adoption of the Statutory Instrument Act in 1972, Parliament provided the right to any person, upon paying the prescribed fee, to inspect and obtain copies of any statutory instrument that had been registered by the Clerk of the Privy Council. 

With technological developments and the arrival of the Internet, approved Orders-In-Councils (OIC) are systematically posted on PCO’s OIC website on the third working day following their approval and they can be accessed free of charge. As a result, no user fees have been collected since 2013–14.