Fishery Notice

On March 31, 2020, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is required to implement the 
Service Fees Act, which requires that all Government of Canada departments and 
agencies annually adjust service fees by the rate of inflation subject to 
certain exceptions. This change includes the cost of licensing fees for all 
federally-regulated commercial and recreational fisheries across Canada. The 
annual rate of inflation is determined by the All-items year-over-year Consumer 
Price Index (CPI) for Canada, published by Statistics Canada.

The annual adjustment must begin in fiscal year 2019-20 (April 1, 2019 to March 
31, 2020). Fisheries and Oceans Canada will implement the first inflationary 
increase (2.2 per cent) on March 31, 2020 for all fishing seasons that start on 
or after April 1, 2020. For 2021 onwards, the annual increase will be applied 
when licences are issued. Fisheries and Oceans Canada last increased licence 
fees in 1996.

Harvesters whose fees are available on the National Online Licensing System 
(NOLS) will have the opportunity to pay their fees at the current price, with 
no inflationary increase, until March 27, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. EDT. After this 
time, all licence fees will be unavailable for payment while the fee amounts 
are updated in the system. Fees will be available for payment at the increased 
rate as of March 31, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. EDT. All other functions of NOLS will be 
operational during this outage.

For 2020 fisheries that open between January 1 and March 31, there will be no 
inflationary increase until January 1, 2021, even if the licence is obtained 
after the March 27 deadline.

The following fees charged by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian 
Coast Guard are affected by the Service Fees Act: 
-Fisheries licensing fees;
-Pacific Salmon Conservation Stamp;
-Icebreaking services fee;
-Maintenance dredging services tonnage fee;
-Marine navigation services fee.

All of the above fees, except for fisheries licensing fees, have already 
implemented their annual inflationary increases.

Additional Information
Two fees charged by Fisheries and Oceans Canada are exempt from the Service 
Fees Act:
-Hydrography fees are exempt under the low-materiality fees regulations.
-Aquaculture licences are only issued in BC under the Pacific Aquaculture 
Regulations, which already include an annual adjustment factor that is applied 
every year to the licence fees.

Vessel and Personal Fisher Registration fees will not be affected by the March 
31, 2020 increase, because they were made available as of January 1, 2020. 
However, they will be subject to the inflationary increase beginning in 2021.

The Services Fees Act received royal assent in 2017 and all Government of 
Canada departments and agencies have until March 31, 2020 to implement the 
changes prescribed in the Act. 
The fee increase was initially announced in the Fisheries and Oceans Canada 
2017 to 2018 Fees Report, published on March 25, 2019.

Fisheries & Oceans Operations Center - FN0196
Sent March 5, 2020 at 1154

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Visit Fisheries and Oceans Canada on the Web at http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Printed from the Pacific Region web site on November 12, 2024 at 2230