2017 to 2018 Fees Report

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The Honourable Ahmed D. Hussen, M.P.
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Catalogue No. MQ1-9E-PDF
ISSN 2562-217X

Minister’s Message

On behalf of the Immigration and Refugee Board, I am pleased to present the 2017 to 2018 Report on Fees.

On June 22, 2017, the Service Fees Act^{Footnote 1} received royal assent, thereby repealing the User Fees Act^{Footnote 2}.

The Service Fees Act introduces a modern legislative framework that enables cost-effective delivery of services and, through enhanced reporting to Parliament, improved transparency and oversight. The act provides for:

• a streamlined approach to consultation and the approval of new or modified fees,
• a requirement for services to have service standards and reporting against these standards, along with a policy to remit fees to fee payers when standards are not met,
• an automatic annual fee adjustment by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to ensure that fees keep pace with inflation, and
• annual detailed reporting to Parliament in order to increase transparency.

This 2017 to 2018 Fees Report is the first report to be prepared under the Service Fees Act. The report includes new information such as a detailed listing of all fees along with future year fee amounts. Additional fee information will be included starting next fiscal year, once the Immigration and Refugee Board fully transitions to the Service Fees Act regime.

I welcome the increased transparency and oversight that the Service Fees Act’s reporting regime embodies, and I am fully committed to transitioning my department to this modern framework.

The Honourable Ahmed D. Hussen, M.P.
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

March 13, 2019

General fees information

The tables that follow provide information on each category of fees, including:

• the name of the fee category,
• the date that the fee (or fee category) was introduced and last amended (if applicable),
• service standards,
• performance results against these standards, and
• financial information regarding total costs, total revenues and remissions.

In addition to the information presented by fee category, there is a summary of the financial information for all fees as well as a listing of fees under the department’s authority. This listing includes the existing fee dollar amounts and the adjusted dollar fee amount for a future year.

General and financial information by fee category

General information

Fee category

Fees for processing requests filed under the Access to Information Act

Fee-setting authority

Access to Information Act^{Footnote 3}

Year introduced

1983

Year last amended

2018

Service standard

A response is provided within 30 days following receipt of a request; the response time may be extended under section 9 of the Access to Information Act.

Performance results

The department responded within 30 days for 97% of the cases or 256^{Footnote 4} of the 263 cases.

Other information

Under the Access to Information Act, all fees or a part thereof may be waived.

Fees under the department’s authority

Not applicable as the fees charged under the Access to Information Act are not under departmental authority and are therefore excluded from this table.