Vol. 145, No. 21 — October 12, 2011

Registration

SI/2011-77 October 12, 2011

FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION ACT

Certain Fees Relating to Export Certificates Remission Order

P.C. 2011-944 September 22, 2011

His Excellency the Governor General in Council, considering that the collection of certain fees relating to export certificates is unreasonable and unjust, on the recommendation of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the Treasury Board, pursuant to subsection 23(2.1) (see footnote a) of the Financial Administration Act (see footnote b), hereby makes the annexed Certain Fees Relating to Export Certificates Remission Order.

CERTAIN FEES RELATING TO EXPORT
CERTIFICATES REMISSION ORDER

REMISSION

1. Remission is granted of the portion of the fee that exceeds $75.00 paid or payable under paragraph 21(4)(a) or (6)(a), subparagraph 21(6)(b)(i), subitem 22(3) or (5), 23(2) or (5), 24(4) or (5), 25(3), (4) or (7) or 26(3) or item 29 of the table to Part 11 of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Fees Notice for an export certificate issued during the period beginning on October 1, 2011 and ending on September 30, 2013.

CONDITION

2. The remission is granted on the condition that the inspection on the basis of which the export certificate is issued is carried out by an accredited veterinarian, as defined in section 2 of the Health of Animals Regulations.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order.)

Issue and objectives

In some cases, the Health of Animals Act and Regulations require exports of live animals and animal by-products from Canada to be accompanied by an export certificate prepared or endorsed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). In other cases, an export certificate is a requirement of the importing jurisdiction. An export certificate is a legal document which confirms that the sanitary requirements of an importing jurisdiction have been met.

Export certification fees are extremely detailed and vary by species, the number of animals in the shipment, the destination of the shipment and whether or not services of an accredited (private) veterinarian can be used in the shipment preparation.

Accredited veterinarians are recognized by the CFIA and play a key role in the export certification process for animals (including cattle, weanling pigs and hatching eggs) destined for the United States and Mexico and embryos exported to any country. Accredited veterinarians can provide inspection and testing services and prepare export documents on behalf of producers. The CFIA, in turn, must review all the documentation provided in support of the prepared export certificate and verify that it is suitable and complete as per the importing jurisdiction’s requirements and endorse the export certificate in order for it to be official.

Currently, most of the export certification fees have no maximum, and are on a per unit basis (per animal or per embryo). As a result, costs can quickly escalate for large shipments. Furthermore, there have been technological advances in the industry since the 1990s that are not reflected in the current fee schedule. The most obvious example is the export certification fee for mammalian embryos which ranges from $2 to $6 per embryo. In the 1990s, the average shipment size was six embryos. Today, shipments of hundreds or thousands of embryos are possible. These shipments require little additional service from the CFIA and therefore costs for a single export certificate can be unreasonably high.

An order granting remission of the portion of these fees that exceeds $75.00 was approved on August 6, 2008, and extended in September 2009, to provide relief to exporters while the CFIA seeks to provide a more permanent solution by amending the CFIA Fees Notice. The most recent order came into force on October 1, 2009, and will expire on September 30, 2011. The objective of this Order is to extend the cap on the cost of these export certificates so that Canadian exporters are not subject to fees that are unreasonable given the service provided.

Description and rationale

The Order grants remission of the portion of the fee that exceeds $75.00 payable for the issuance of certain export certificates for animals or embryos during the period beginning October 1, 2011, and ending on September 30, 2013, if an accredited veterinarian provided the inspection services on which the export certificate is based.

This proposal would result in a loss of revenue to the CFIA of approximately $2,700,000 for fees issued from October 1, 2011, to September 30, 2013. The reduction in fees will ensure that exporters are not subject to unreasonable fees, and will help ensure continued industry engagement in discussions to effect broader changes in support of a more competitive and modernized fee structure.

This upper limit would provide greater consistency across the various animal health fees and recognizes that the fees for export certification do not currently reflect the actual costs for the CFIA to provide the service.