Cost recovery is a federal government policy established for deficit reduction. For the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, the level of cost recovery was set at $22 million by cabinet when the agency was created in 1995.
The government process to determine how cost recovery levels are set is a Treasury Board policy. The Pest Management Regulatory Agency implemented this Treasury Board policy under the supervision of Treasury Board officials.
Treasury Board Secretariat analysts provided input to costing of activities and different options on fee collection protocols contained in the Discussion Paper: Cost Recovery Analysis that was released on March 1, 1996. They confirmed that our proposed fees were based on cost of providing the service.
Representatives from Treasury Board Secretariat, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Industry Canada, and Natural Resources Canada participated fully in the various impact assessments. Treasury Board Secretariat was involved in the planning of the business impact test conducted on the Pest Management Regulatory Agency cost recovery proposals. Treasury Board Secretariat and Industry Canada representatives attended the April 22, 1996 business impact test meetings with stakeholders. Representatives of the above departments attended the May 29, 1996 meeting of the Interim Canadian Pest Management Advisory Council to discuss the impact assessments. They also attended the September 23, 1996 stakeholder meeting in Toronto where the results of the impact assessments were presented and participated in the September 30, 1996 consensus-building process to develop a fee structure with stakeholders.
On September 20, 1996, Treasury Board Secretariat called an interdepartmental meeting, attended by the Privy Council Office, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Industry Canada, Natural Resources Canada and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency in preparation for the September 23 and 30, 1996 meetings with stakeholders.
Re-engineering processes established by the new Agency provided savings which reduced the cost recovery portion of the budget to $15 million. This amount was further reduced by another $3 million for the next six years through grants from Health Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The total amount to be cost recovered as delineated in the regulatory Impact Analysis Statement of April 16, 1997, is $12 million.
Question No. 66—