Thank you for your recent correspondence to the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities,
regarding the payment of costs associated with maintaining a pilot licence. The Minister has asked me to reply on his behalf.
Minister Cannon appreciates receiving your comments and has noted your concerns. I should note that the medical certificate fee,
previously known as the recurring pilot fee, came into effect on August 1, 1995, after consultation with representatives of
aviation associations, such as the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association. The fee applies each time a pilot passes the required
medical assessment for renewal of his or her pilot licence. Medical assessments are required every six months or every one, two or
five years, depending on the pilot's age and the type of licence held. The fee was developed based on a careful review of all
aviation costs, and it recovers only a portion of the total cost of services provided to pilots. In July 2000, Transport Canada
increased the validity periods for private pilots and simplified the associated processing fees.
I should explain that the fee recovers part of the costs of processing medical certificates and producing aeronautical
information. The remaining costs of providing these services to pilots continue to be subsidized by Canadian taxpayers. Please
note that after a change in user fee policy and when the fee was simplified in July 2000, the fee no longer subsidized costs for
the old Aeronautical Information Publication and does not subsidize the new Aeronautical Information Manual. I should also note
that doctor's fees are not included in the Transport Canada fee.
If you require additional information regarding these fees, please feel free to contact Mr. Robert Sincennes, Director, Quality and
Resource Management, Civil Aviation, at the following address:
Place de Ville, Tower C, 5th Floor
330 Sparks Street
Ottawa ON KlA 0N8
I would also invite you to visit the Civil Aviation website at the following address:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/civilaviation/menu.htm <http>
The process followed by Transport Canada in requesting payment of the charge for processing a medical certificate and producing
aeronautical information is to forward an invoice to the pilot for the payment due. A statement of the status of the account
normally follows this invoice. If no payment is forwarded in a timely fashion, a letter is sent from the Canada Revenue Agency.
However, it should be noted that Canada Revenue Agency is simply acting as an agent in the collection of outstanding fees as they
do for government departments that have accounts in arrears. While Canada Revenue Agency does collect personal income tax, they are
collecting overdue fees for Transport Canada. The collection of fees in this way does not constitute a tax though it is collected
by a department that collects taxes.
Since February of 2006, all outstanding invoices and statements are sent to Collectcorp Inc. This was in response to a problem in
the collection of outstanding fees by using the Canada Revenue Agency only. Often monies are already owing to the Canadian Revenue
Agency on personal income taxes and as a result a set off and subsequent collection is not possible by the Canada Revenue
Agency.
Any accounts that have gone to the collection agency that are not in arrears require research by Transport Canada and we have been
looking into these inquiries.
We hope that the above information helps your understanding of the problems in collection of the fees that have necessitated using
a collection agency.
Yours sincerely,
Merlin Preuss
Director General, Civil Aviation
Transport Canada
