Regulations Amending the Canada Grain Regulations: SOR/2021-139
Canada Gazette, Part II, Volume 155, Number 14
Registration
SOR/2021-139 June 17, 2021
CANADA GRAIN ACT
P.C. 2021-581 June 17, 2021
The Canadian Grain Commission, pursuant to paragraph 116(1)(r) of the Canada Grain Act footnote a, makes the annexed Regulations Amending the Canada Grain Regulations.
Winnipeg, June 7, 2021
Doug Chorney
Chief Commissioner
Patty Rosher
Assistant Chief Commissioner
Lonny McKague
Commissioner
His Excellency the Administrator of the Government of Canada in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, pursuant to paragraph 116(1)(r) of the Canada Grain Act footnote a, approves the making of the annexed Regulations Amending the Canada Grain Regulations by the Canadian Grain Commission.
Regulations Amending the Canada Grain Regulations
Amendments
| Item | Column 4 Fee |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1.00 |
| 2 | $90.12 |
| Item | Column 4 Fee |
|---|---|
| 4 | $0.05 |
| 5 | $4.96 |
Coming into Force
3 These Regulations come into force on August 1, 2021, but if they are registered after that day, they come into force on the day on which they are registered.
REGULATORY IMPACT ANALYSIS STATEMENT
(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)
Executive summary
Issues: The Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) fees for official inspection and official weighing are generating a surplus in the CGC’s revolving fund due to the continued increase in grain production and grain export volumes. The CGC’s fees were last updated in 2018 with the intention to generate no material surpluses or deficits over a five-year cycle. While the 2017–18 fee and grain volume model updates significantly reduced the accumulation of surplus, in-year surplus growth continues.
Description: The regulatory amendments update Schedule 1 of the Canada Grain Regulations to realign four official inspection and official weighing fees with an adjusted grain volume forecast.
Rationale: These amendments limit the accumulation of additional in-year surplus moving forward by realigning official inspection and official weighing fees with an adjusted grain volume forecast. The fees will come into effect on August 1, 2021, the start of the 2021–22 crop year.
These amendments should result in gross savings to stakeholders of $55.15 million for the next three-year period (2021–22 to 2023–24).
Issues
CGC fees for official inspection and official weighing are generating a surplus in the CGC’s revolving fund due to the continued increase in grain production and grain export volumes. When CGC fees were last updated in 2018, the intention was to generate no material surpluses or deficits over a five-year cycle. Although the 2017–18 fee and grain volume model updates significantly reduced the accumulation of surplus, in-year surplus growth continues.
To limit the accumulation of additional in-year surplus and surplus growth moving forward, the CGC is realigning four fees for official inspection and official weighing services with an adjusted grain volume forecast. The CGC has not conducted a comprehensive costing or fee review as part of these targeted fee amendments to allow for the current Canada Grain Act review process to advance and inform future work. A comprehensive fee review would be targeted effective April 2025.
Background
The CGC is structured as a revolving fund, receiving approximately 90% of its funding from charging fees for its services and the balance from appropriation sources. The intention of the CGC is to align all fees with the cost of providing services and to not generate material surpluses or deficits. This aligns with the Government of Canada’s revolving fund policy that requires revenues and expenses be balanced over a specified business cycle (e.g. five-year time horizon).
The CGC last comprehensively updated its fees in Schedule 1 of the Canada Grain Regulations (CGR) on April 1, 2018. Prior to this, the CGC made amendments to only official inspection and official weighing fees on August 1, 2017, and comprehensive fee amendments on August 1, 2013. As part of the 2013 fee update process, the CGC established a review cycle that repeats every five years to help ensure that CGC fees remain aligned with the costs of providing services and licences. The CGC also indicated that it would address issues outside the five-year fee review cycle as warranted. The current five-year review cycle ends March 31, 2023.
Official inspection and official weighing fees
Grain volumes subject to official inspection at licensed terminal elevators are the basis upon which the CGC establishes its fees. The baseline for existing service and licence fees was established in 2017–18 for the five-year period ending March 2023, and was based on a $62.5 million budget and an annual average official inspection and weighing volume of 34.405 million metric tonnes (MMT). CGC management monitors costs on an ongoing basis and allocates resources within its annual operating and capital budgets to meet both ongoing and emerging requirements. The expenditures for the highest area of cost, inspection services, may vary from year to year according to the quality and volume of the crop. Since fees were implemented in 2018, costs have remained relatively stable, but the CGC has consistently inspected and weighed higher-than-forecast grain volumes. This situation has resulted in continued in-year surplus generation.
In fiscal years 2017–18, 2018-19, and 2019–20, official inspection and official weighing grain volumes were 36.96 MMT, 39.54 MMT, and 38.65 MMT respectively, which generated in-year surpluses of $8.89 million, $3.66 million, and $2.96 million. For fiscal year 2020–21, the CGC is projecting an in-year surplus of over $11 million. This is in addition to the approximately $15.51 million in surplus accumulated from fiscal years 2017–18 to 2019–20.
The 2017–18 grain volumes model did not anticipate several factors that are contributing to the continued accumulation of surplus, including unprecedented increases in grain production and export grain volumes, major private sector infrastructure investments in the grain handling system, and relatively stable CGC operating costs.
Given this situation, the CGC updated its model for forecasting the volume of grain that it expects to officially inspect and weigh upon discharge from terminal elevators and is projecting a level of approximately 48.1 MMT annually for the next three fiscal years (2021–22 to 2023–24). The model uses statistical time-series analysis based on monthly official inspection and weighing grain volumes for the 1983–2020 period. The model is objective, reproducible, and “self-improving” as more export data can be added with each update of the forecast. Forecast volume estimates of terminal exports are consistent with official Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) medium-term outlooks for grain production and exports. The updated model is similar to the forecasting model used by the Federal Grain Inspection Service, the CGC’s counterpart in the United States, and was previously peer reviewed and validated by AAFC, the University of Saskatchewan, and Transport Canada.
To further improve the forecasting model, an additive factor has been included for recent major infrastructure investments that have the ability to increase the overall export capacity of the grain handling system going forward. This factor was calculated by using, as a proxy, the minimum estimated capacity for the new Vancouver, B.C. terminal elevators based on comparable turn ratios for similar terminal elevators in the region. A turn ratio is the total annual throughput grain volume divided by the terminal capacity. In addition, while the CGC has typically generated a volume forecast based on a five-year period, the updated model uses a three-year forecast as a shorter forecast period, allowing for timelier volume adjustments should there be abrupt volume changes.
Annual inflation factor
The Service Fees Act, which came into effect in June 2017, establishes an annual inflation factor that automatically applies to all fees fixed in regulations. Beginning in fiscal year 2019–20, the CGC started adjusting fees annually for inflation each year on April 1 to be consistent with the Service Fees Act. The adjustment is based on the April All-Items Consumer Price Index for Canada.
Objective
Updating the four fees related to official inspection and official weighing services to reflect the adjusted grain volume forecast for the next three-year period (fiscal years 2021–22 to 2023–24) will limit the accumulation of additional surplus in the CGC revolving fund.
Description
The CGC service fees are outlined in Schedule 1 of the CGR. The amendments to Schedule 1 will replace the four fees for official inspection and official weighing services with reduced rates that are aligned with the adjusted grain volume forecast for the next three fiscal years. The fees will be effective August 1, 2021, the start of the 2021–22 crop year.
The fees will be as follows:
- Official inspection – ships: $1.00/tonne
- Official inspection – railway cars, trucks, containers: $90.12/inspection
- Official weighing – ships: $0.05/tonne
- Official weighing – railway cars, trucks, containers: $4.96/railway car, truck or container
Regulatory development
Consultation
The CGC conducted extensive fee consultations in 2016, 2017, and 2018 with all affected stakeholders including grain producers, producer organizations, licensed grain handlers, industry associations, and relevant government organizations. As part of the fee consultation process, Ipsos, on behalf of the CGC, conducted a qualitative survey of grain industry representatives and a quantitative survey of western Canadian grain producers. Survey results provided information on the perceptions and impressions of Canadian grain producers and grain industry representatives regarding CGC services, satisfaction levels with CGC services, and opinions on fee adjustments. The final PDF report of the CGC’s (ARCHIVED) 2017 Client Satisfaction Survey (PDF) is available on the Library and Archives Canada’s website.
Consultation feedback indicated that stakeholders felt it was important to control the accumulation of any additional CGC surplus revenue and were supportive of reduced fees. All stakeholders were supportive of the CGC’s grain volume forecasting methodology. As a result, official inspection and official weighing fees were amended effective August 1, 2017 (Canada Gazette, Part II, July 12, 2017) and comprehensive fee amendments were implemented effective April 1, 2018 (Canada Gazette, Part II, March 21, 2018).
Given the current agricultural operating environment and the CGC’s continued accumulation of in-year revolving fund surplus, these amendments should again result in positive stakeholder reaction given further reduced costs and improved profit margins.
Consultation process following publication in the Canada Gazette, Part I
These regulatory amendments were published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on May 22, 2021, followed by a 15-day consultation period. Stakeholder feedback received on the fee amendments was overwhelmingly positive and no changes have been made to the proposal.
Modern treaty obligations and Indigenous engagement and consultation
The CGC conducted a modern treaty assessment and determined that there are no modern treaty obligations associated with these amendments. The amendments do not result in any direct impacts to Indigenous peoples.
Instrument choice
To limit the further accumulation of revenue surpluses from collection of fees for service, the official inspection and weighing fees must be reduced. Using a regulatory instrument to revise service fees is the only available option.
Regulatory analysis
Benefits and costs
The amended fees will take effect August 1, 2021, the start of the 2021–22 crop year. For fiscal 2021–22, fees paid by grain sector stakeholders will be reduced by approximately $13.79 million, a cost decrease of 19%. This calculation is based on existing 2021–22 published fees and the updated grain volume forecast (48.1 MMT) that the CGC expects to officially inspect and weigh annually for the next three-year period. Savings for the 2022–23 and 2023–24 fiscal years are expected to be approximately $20.68 million annually, which represents a cost decrease of 29%. When directly compared to the published 2021–22 fee levels, these amendments represent a cost decrease of $0.43 per tonne for official inspection and weighing services for ships, and a cost decrease of $37.88 per official inspection and weighing services for a railway car, truck, or container.
| Fee name | Unit (per) | Current published fee table 3 note a 2021–22 ($CAD) |
Proposed fee table 3 note a 2021–22 ($CAD) |
Savings to stakeholders ($CAD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official inspection – ships | Tonne | $1.41 | $1.00 | $0.41 |
| Official weighing – ships | Tonne | $0.07 | $0.05 | $0.02 |
| Official inspection – railway cars, trucks, containers | Inspection | $126.01 | $90.12 | $35.89 |
| Official weighing – railway cars, trucks, containers | Railway car or truck or container | $6.95 | $4.96 | $1.99 |
Table 3 note(s)
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AAFC’s Canadian Medium Agriculture Outlook (2017–27) is forecasting world grain and oilseed prices to grow moderately over the next decade. While CGC fees represent a small portion of costs for grain sector stakeholders, they still reduce profit margins. Published 2021–22 CGC official inspection and official weighing fees represent approximately 4% of the cost of transporting grain from a mid-prairie point to export position. These fee reductions will decrease this portion to 3%. footnote 2
Over the next three fiscal years, the CGC’s fee revenue will be reduced by an amount equal to the approximate $55.15 million benefit accruing to stakeholders through the reduction in the four fees for official inspection and official weighing services. Adjusting these fees such that surplus funds do not continue to accumulate provides a benefit to Canadians and the economy in that the funds are better used by sector stakeholders to provide economic value than if accumulated in the CGC revolving fund. On an ongoing basis, it is the CGC’s intention to align all fees with the cost of providing services and to generate no material surpluses or deficits. This aligns with the Government of Canada’s revolving fund policy, which requires revenues and expenses to be balanced over a specified business cycle (e.g. five-year time horizon). These amendments are expected to limit the possibility of additional CGC surplus accumulation and reduce costs to stakeholders.
In this regard, grain handling companies that directly pay official CGC service fees will have the opportunity to put the cost savings generated from reduced fees toward alternate uses, and to improve their market competitiveness. In practice, grain handlers generally pass the costs of official inspection and official weighing services back to producers as part of their handling tariffs. Reduced CGC fees and a subsequent reduction in elevator handling tariffs will also potentially benefit producers through higher net prices for grain deliveries.
The CGC does not anticipate any material costs or a consequential effect on its operating budget as a result of these regulatory amendments. Its current budget will fund any transitional costs necessary to support implementation of the fee amendments including communications to stakeholders, and information technology and financial system updates. The CGC revolving fund balance is sufficient to adjust to any future fluctuations in grain volumes and demand for official inspection and official weighing services. There is no risk to the fiscal framework of needing to provide the CGC with ad hoc appropriation. Further, the updated grains volume model uses a three-year forecast that allows for timelier volume adjustments should there be abrupt volume changes.
Small business lens
To limit the regulatory burden imposed on businesses, the CGC considered potential impacts of these regulatory amendments as discussed in the above section on benefits and costs. This analysis indicates that these fee amendments will result in a combined official inspection and weighing fee reduction from $1.48/tonne to $1.05/tonne for ships. Moving forward, this represents a 29% reduction and savings to all impacted businesses.
As of March 31, 2021, the CGC licensed 36 grain handling facilities as terminal elevators, the businesses that pay directly for official inspection and official weighing services. Of these, none fall under the small business category as defined in the Policy on Limiting Regulatory Burden on Business: “A small business, for the purpose of the small business lens, is: any business, including its affiliates, that has fewer than 100 employees or less than $5 million in annual gross revenues.” Therefore, the CGC does not anticipate any direct impacts to small businesses, as a result of this initiative. Small businesses may indirectly benefit from reductions in costs to grain handling facilities if these costs savings are passed on to grain producers; however, this would be a secondary impact of these amendments.
One-for-one rule
The one-for-one rule does not apply to the amendments, as there is no change in administrative costs to businesses.
Regulatory cooperation and alignment
These amendments do not have any linkages to international agreements or obligations and are not related to a work plan or commitment under a formal regulatory cooperation forum (e.g. the Canada–United States Regulatory Cooperation Council, the Canadian Free Trade Agreement Regulatory Reconciliation and Cooperation Table, the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Regulatory Cooperation Forum). An assessment of other jurisdictions and international organizations identified that these regulatory amendments are specific to Canadian requirements.
Strategic environmental assessment
In accordance with the Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals, a preliminary scan concluded that a strategic environmental assessment is not required.
Gender-based analysis plus
No gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) impacts have been identified for these amendments.
Implementation, compliance and enforcement, and service standards
Implementation
These regulatory amendments are targeted to come into force on August 1, 2021.
As part of implementation, a communication strategy will involve notification to grain sector stakeholders regarding fee amendments and updates to the CGC website prior to the amendments coming into force.
The CGC updated its information technology and financial systems to support these regulatory amendments.
Official inspection and official weighing fees will be reviewed if services change or if, for example, actual CGC operating costs become considerably unaligned with grain export volumes.
Compliance and enforcement
Where a fee is not paid by the person obliged to do so (as stipulated in the CGR), then that fee payable will be a debt owing to the Crown. That fee will be collected as per standard practice.
Service standards
The CGC consulted with stakeholders and established service standards that reflect the expected level of service when fees were updated in 2018. Service standards did not change with these fee amendments. The service standards are commitments with recourse for underperformance, as per the Service Fees Act.
Contact
Policy Unit
Innovation and Strategy
Canadian Grain Commission
Telephone: 1‑800‑853‑6705
TTY: 1‑866‑317‑4289
Email: discussions@grainscanada.gc.ca