News Release

July 4, 2000
Edmonton, Alberta

"Albertans have already begun to feel the benefits of our review, and its conclusion means even greater savings"

St. Albert MLA Mary O’Neill,
Chair of the Fees and Charges Review Committee

The Fees and Charges Review Committee released its final report today, paving the way for an additional $500,000 worth of savings for Albertans.

That’s on top of $60 million worth of cuts to fees and charges already announced in Budget 2000.

"This wraps up an extensive review of the province’s fees and charges," said St. Albert MLA Mary O’Neill, chair of the committee. "The result is that Albertans and their businesses will be able to keep more of their earnings for their own use."

O’Neill’s committee was launched in the spring of 1999 following a Supreme Court ruling that said a compulsory fee must more accurately reflect the cost of the service provided. While other provinces scrambled to protect their fees in legislation, Alberta saw this as an opportunity to determine if some of our direct government fees and charges could be reduced or eliminated.

The committee’s year-long review led to reductions on more than 100 fees and charges for a wide array of services, from corporate registry fees and land title fees to personal property registration fees. But O’Neill said her team also found that the vast majority of Alberta’s 1,200 fees and charges were below or appropriately in line with costs.

In addition to the fee reductions, the final report details the committee’s review process and outlines recommendations on the government's general fees and charges policy. O’Neill said the report will serve as the foundation for any subsequent changes to the government’s approach on fees and charges.

More details are available in the Backgrounder below. To view the committee’s report, click on the link below the Backgrounder.

Backgrounder
Final report of the Fees and Charges Review Committee

The Fees and Charges Review Committee has concluded its year-long review with more than $500,000 in additional reductions to provincial fees and charges.

In Budget 2000, more than 100 fees and charges were reduced or eliminated for a wide range of services from corporate registry fees to land title fees to personal property registration fees, reducing revenues collected through fees by $60 million a year. Now, the province has capped off its review with an additional $500,000 reduction in fees paid by sponsors who have pension plans registered under the Employment Pension Plans Act and fees for mobile home labels used to indicate that the trailer is built to Alberta standards.

The new reductions came into effect on July 1, the day the Government Fees and Charges Review Act expired. The Act had been passed to allow the committee time to do its work. It protected the government’s fees and charges from legal challenges and prevented the government from increasing fees while the review was in progress.

In October 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada determined that for a compulsory government fee to be constitutionally valid, the amount charged must reflect the cost of the service provided. Alberta used this ruling as an opportunity to conduct a one-year, full-scale review of all provincial user fees, charges and premiums.

The Fees and Charges Review Committee, chaired by St. Albert MLA Mary O’Neill, was established with a one-year mandate to review all government fees and charges, other than taxes established in legislation, to determine if all the amounts charged are appropriate. The Committee was also authorized to review the government’s general policy on fees and charges, and to comment on fees and charges levied by government entities. Alberta is the only province to undertake such a wide-ranging review of user fees.

The Committee has just released its comprehensive final report, which provides details of the Committee’s review as well as recommendations on the government's general fees and charges policy. This report will serve as the foundation for any subsequent policy on fees and charges and the recommendations will guide the government’s review of any proposed changes to fees and charges in future years.

General recommendations by the Fees and Charges Review Committee

In their final report, the Fees and Charges Review Committee made a number of recommendations, including:

• Where there is clear rationale for charging less than the cost of providing a service, the province should not increase the charges to cost-recovery levels. Further, the province should clearly communicate to users the rationale for the charges and the degrees to which the given service is subsidized.
• The province should develop a reasonable estimate of the costs of providing each service that is subject to a charge.
• The province should develop general guidelines for estimating the cost of providing services.
• The province should use clear, consistent terminology when establishing charges in statutes and regulations.

To promote sound fiscal planning and greater accountability, ministries should introduce and revise charges during the annual budget and business planning process.

Click here for the Final Report of the Fees and Charges Review Committee (pdf format).

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