Remission Policy for Fees under the Service Fees Act

1. Effective date

• 1.1 This policy takes effect on November 21, 2022.

2. Context

• 2.1 This policy is established in accordance with the requirements set out in section 4.2.4 of the Treasury Board Directive on Charging and Special Financial Authorities (the Directive) and section 7 of the Service Fees Act (the Act).
• 2.2 This policy establishes the framework on the roles and responsibilities and guiding principles to develop, maintain, and update fee-specific remission policies.

3. Application

• 3.1 This policy applies to the Privy Council Office (PCO) fees subject to sections 4 and 7 of the Act.
• 3.2 This policy should be read in conjunction with sections 4.2.4 and 6.2 of the Directive.

4. Guiding principles

• 4.1 While determining whether or not a remission should be made, the following factors must be taken into consideration:
  • 4.1.1 the proportion by which the service standard is met
  • 4.1.2 the impact on the fee-payer if the service standard was not met
  • 4.1.3 any circumstances beyond PCO's control that may impact its ability to meet the service standard (for example, electricity outage, flooding)
  • 4.1.4 any role that the fee-payer may play in the service standard not being met
• 4.2 Remissions are issued when the service standards are not met as per the criteria of the fee-specific remission policy (Appendix 1).
• 4.3 The portion of a fee to be remitted must be proportional to the degree that the service standard was not met.
• 4.4 Remissions are granted to a fee‑payer in the form of a refund, a credit, a waiver, or any manner deemed appropriate by PCO.
• 4.5 Interest will not be paid for remissions as per section 4.2.4.3 of the Directive.
• 4.6 PCO will initiate the remission payments in cases where a service standard is not met.
• 4.7 Remissions are to be issued before July 1 of the following fiscal year in which the service standard was not met as per section 7 of the Act.

5. Eligibility

• 5.1 A fee‑payer may be eligible to receive a remission pursuant to section 7 of the Act if the following conditions apply:
  • 5.1.1 When the service standard is not met
  • 5.1.2 The fee-payer does not play any role in the service standard not being met, such as submitting incomplete application or missing any required further information
  • 5.1.3 The service standard is not met due to situations beyond PCO's control, including:
    • 5.1.3.1 unforeseen system disruptions and/or failures
    • 5.1.3.2 natural disasters
    • 5.1.3.3 emergency situations
    • 5.1.3.4 unforeseen office closures
    • 5.1.3.5 labour disruption
    • 5.1.3.6 any other similar exceptional circumstances.

6. Criteria

PCO has established criteria and methodologies to remit fees when a service standard is not met. Please refer to Appendix 1 for the fee-specific remission policy for details.

7. Roles and responsibilities

• 7.1 PCO's Chief Financial Officer is responsible for:
  • 7.1.1 ensuring that the departmental remission policy is developed, implemented, and that PCO is in compliance with it
  • 7.1.2 ensuring that correct actions are taken to address the non-compliance with the provisions of the departmental remission policy
  • 7.1.3 making the remissions policy and procedures available to the public
• 7.2 Senior departmental managers (that is, assistant deputy ministers/branch heads) are responsible for:
  • 7.2.1 establishing service standards for the fees charged for services, including the use of a facility, in accordance with relevant Treasury Board policies and directives
  • 7.2.2 developing, implementing, and reviewing fee-specific remission policies
  • 7.2.3 establishing and implementing processes for tracking and monitoring the charging of fees, compliance with service standards, and remissions where applicable
  • 7.2.4 ensuring that service standards are meaningful and measurable
  • 7.2.5 ensuring that the determination of whether a service standard has been met and whether the fee payer is eligible for the remission is made as per the requirements of fee-specific remission policies
  • 7.2.6 providing a mechanism for fee‑payers to provide comments about PCO's fees and service standards
• 7.3 Departmental program managers are responsible for:
  • 7.3.1 ensuring that corrective actions are taken to address non-compliance with fee‑specific remission policies, including remitting portions of fees

8. Enquiries

• 8.1 Information for fee‑specific inquiries, including inquiries on remission eligibility, criteria, and remission status can be found in Appendix 1.

9. References

• 9.1 Legislation
  • Service Fees Act
  • Financial Administration Act
• 9.2 Related policy instruments
  • Directive on Charging and Special Financial Authorities, sections 4 and 6.2.
  • Directive on Payments

Appendix 1: Fees charged for inspection and obtaining of copies of statutory instruments

1. Context

This remission policy articulates remission criteria specific to the Fees charged for inspection and obtaining of copies of statutory instruments, and should be read in conjunction with the Privy Council Office's remission policy.

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.

2. Service standards

90% of requests will be completed within 5 business days.

3. Eligibility/criteria

Unless otherwise stated, a partial discount may be applied in cases where PCO has not met the service standard.

4. Ineligibility

A fee-payer is not entitled to a discount in cases where the cause of not meeting the service standard is any of the following:

• situations out of PCO's control, for example, where
  • there is an unforeseen disruption or failure of the IT systems
  • the equipment is broken or not available
  • there is a power outage
  • Building is not accessible

5. Amount of remission – rules and calculation methodology

In cases where a service standard is not met, the fee-payer may be entitled to a remission to compensate for a potential loss for the accessibility not being provided in the form of a discount. Specifically, if a service standard is missed by 1% to 30%, payers would receive a 20% discount; if it is missed by 31% to 50%, payers would receive a 50% discount.  If it is missed by greater than 50%, they would receive a full refund.

For example, if a service standard is 90% in 10 days and the service was provided in 15 days, the service standard was exceeded by 50% of the mandated time (the standard was not met), PCO would offer a 50% discount to the fee-payer.

6. Issuance of payment

Fee-payers who are entitled to fee remission are not required to apply for the remission; PCO will initiate the process.