Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency remission policy for missed service standards

On this page

1. Effective date
2. Application
3. Remission criteria
4. Notification and issuance of remissions
5. Exclusions
6. Role of the fee-payer
7. Dispute resolution
8. Periodical review
9. Glossary of terms
10. Appendix I – Service standards and remission calculations

1. Effective date

• 1.1 The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) Remission Policy for Missed Service Standards is effective as of 1 April 2021.
• 1.2 This policy applies to a request for service or application received on or after 1 April 2021.

2. Application

• 2.1 This policy applies to fees administered by the PMRA that are subject to the Service Fees Act.
• 2.2 This policy applies to the reimbursement (“remission”) to a fee-payer of the portion of a fee paid in respect of a service for which the PMRA determines the service standard was not met.
• 2.3 This policy pertains to fees and related services (“applications”) listed in the Pest Control Products Fees and Charges Regulations and to the associated service standards expressed in the Management of Submissions Policy (MOSP).
• 2.4 Pursuant to section 22 of the Service Fees Act, this policy does not apply to fees meeting the criteria for a low-materiality fee as specified in the Service Fees Act Low-materiality Fees Regulations. The fee for the renewal of a pest control product is a low-materiality fee and therefore ineligible for remissions.
• 2.5 This policy is consistent with, and subordinate to, the Health Canada Remission Policy for Missed Service Standards.

3. Remission criteria

The PMRA will use the following criteria to determine whether a remission is to be issued to a fee-payer, and if so, in what amount:

• 3.1 A remission will be triggered when the service standard (MOSP Review Timeline) for a fee-related service is missed by at least 10%.
• 3.2 When a remission is triggered, the remission rate will be determined on a sliding scale equal to the percentage by which the service standard was missed, to a maximum of 25%.
• 3.3 The remission amount will be calculated by multiplying the remission rate by the total fee for the affected service.
• 3.4 Remission amounts will be rounded up to the nearest dollar.

Refer to Appendix I for details on service standards, remission rates and sample remission amount calculations.

4. Notification and issuance of remissions

• 4.1 When a service standard in relation to a fee is not met and the fee-payer is eligible for a remission under section 3.1, the PMRA will undertake a reasonable effort to notify the fee-payer.
• 4.2 Once the remission amount for the affected service is known, the PMRA will remit that amount to the fee-payer, in the form of a credit, no later than July 1 of the following fiscal year.
• 4.3 Fee-payers reserve the right to decline any remissions to which they are eligible. If a fee-payer wishes to exercise this right, they must do so in writing, specifying whether they wish to decline a particular remission and/or any potential future remissions.
• 4.4 As per section 4.2.4.3 of the Directive on Charging and Special Financial Authorities, interest will not be applied or paid for remissions made.

5. Exclusions

In the following circumstances, the PMRA reserves the right (as per section 4.2.4.1 of the Directive on Charging and Special Financial Authorities) to rescind or reduce a remission:

• 5.1 When service standards are missed due to unforeseen or extraordinary circumstances beyond the PMRA's control such as building closure, labour disruption or a natural disaster event.
• 5.2 When service standards for Joint Review applications are missed due to delays with external partners/foreign regulatory authorities in completing their portion of the work.

6. Role of the fee-payer

• 6.1 The PMRA relies on fee-payers to notify program officials of any changes in contact and/or billing information to ensure timely service delivery and the issuance of remissions.

7. Dispute resolution

• 7.1 If a fee-payer wishes to dispute any aspect of a requested service as it relates to this policy, then the fee-payer can submit their claim, in writing, to the Chief Registrar, Pest Management Regulatory Agency. The fee-payer shall include a summary of the reasons for their claim and any other relevant supporting documentation.
• 7.2 The Chief Registrar shall conduct an internal review of the claim, and will communicate the final decision to the fee-payer, in writing, no later than 30 days after the claim is received.

8. Periodical review

• 8.1 The PMRA will periodically review this remission policy in conjunction with the review of its associated service standards.

9. Glossary of terms

• 9.1 Fee-Payer: The fee-payer is the “affected person who paid the fee” referred to in section 7.1 of the Service Fees Act. Otherwise known as an “applicant” or “registrant”.
• 9.2 Fee-Related Service: A request by a fee-payer for the examination of an application in respect of a pest control product. Otherwise known as an “application” or “submission”. To be eligible under this policy, an application shall have a related fee under the Pest Control Products Fees and Charges Regulations and a service standard under MOSP.
• 9.3 Fiscal Year: The period beginning on April 1 in one year and ending on March 31 in the next year.
• 9.4 Service Standard: A public commitment to provide a service, product, or conferral of rights and privileges in a way that is measurable and relevant to the fee-payer under normal circumstances. In PMRA’s case, service standards are expressed as “Review Timeline in Calendar Days” under MOSP. The “performance standard” referred to in the Service Fees Act is the equivalent of a service standard.
• 9.5 Total Fee: The fee calculated by the PMRA in relation to a service MINUS any portion of that fee returned to the fee-payer due to services not rendered. In the case of a fee where a tax is applied and collected (such as, Maximum Residue Limit applications), the total fee refers to the pre-tax amount.

10. Appendix I – Service standards and remission calculations

The following table lists service standards, the minimum number of additional days in excess of a service standard needed to trigger a remission (as per section 3.1), the applicable minimum remission rate, and the total number of additional days in excess of a service standard needed to reach the remission maximum.

10 Appendix I – Service standards and remission calculations

Service Standard (“Review Timeline in Calendar Days”)	# Additional Days Needed to Trigger a RemissionFootnote 1	Minimum Remission RateFootnote 2	# Additional Days Needed to Reach 25% Remission MaximumFootnote 3
655	66 (721 total)	10%	164 (819 total)
555	56 (611 total)	10%	139 (694 total)
470	47 (517 total)	10%	118 (588 total)
425	43 (468 total)	10%	107 (532 total)
365	37 (402 total)	10%	92 (457 total)
360	36 (396 total)	10%	90 (450 total)
240	24 (264 total)	10%	60 (300 total)
180	18 (198 total)	10%	45 (225 total)
159	16 (175 total)	10%	40 (199 total)
158	16 (174 total)	10%	40 (198 total)
69	7 (76 total)	10%	18 (87 total)
46	5 (51 total)	11%	12 (58 total)
45	5 (50 total)	11%	12 (57 total)
42	5 (47 total)	12%	11 (53 total)
30	3 (33 total)	10%	8 (38 total)
10	1 (11 total)	10%	3 (13 total)
Variable/Negotiated	To be calculated on an application-by-application basis
Footnote 1 Please note that service standards are always measured as “whole” days. Therefore, when applying the 10% minimum threshold, the “# Additional Days Needed to Trigger a Remission” is always rounded up to the next day (for example, 10% of 655 is 65.5, rounded up to 66 days). Return to footnote 1 referrer Footnote 2 Depending upon the service standard, rounding up may cause the actual minimum remission rate to be greater than 10%. In these cases, the minimum remission rate is rounded to the nearest whole number in order to simplify remission amount calculations. Return to footnote 2 referrer Footnote 3 Similarly, the “# Additional Days Needed to Reach 25% Remission Maximum” is also rounded up (for example, 25% of 655 is 163.75, rounded up to 164 days); however the maximum remission rate is always set at 25.0%. Return to footnote 3 referrer

Sample Calculations: In fiscal year 2020-2021, the highest fee under the Pest Control Product Fees and Charges Regulations is $202,395 for a Category A “Conventional Chemical, New Active Ingredient” application.

• The service standard for this type of application is 655 days.
• A remission will not be triggered until the actual number of days used by the PMRA to review the affected application reaches 721 (655 + 10%).
• Based on the above table, the minimum remission amount for this type of application is 10% of $202,395 = $20,240.
• The remission amount will reach its maximum when the actual number of days used by PMRA to review the affected application reaches 819 (655 + 25%). The maximum remission amount will be 25% of $202,395 = $50,599.
• When the actual number of days used by PMRA to review the affected application is between the minimum and the maximum, the following formula will be used to determine the remission rate:

  [(Actual Number of Days - Service Standard) / Service Standard] x 100

• In order to simplify remission amount calculations, the remission rate resulting from the above formula will always be rounded to the nearest whole percentage.
• Applying this to the above example, if the 655 day service standard is missed by 100 days (755 total days), then the remission rate will be (755 - 655)/655 = 15.2672%, rounded to 15%. The remission amount is 15% of $202,395 = $30,360.