User fees hiked two per cent in Nova Scotia
Posted Apr 15, 2011 11:36:50 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
This year’s Financial Measures Act is allowing for dozens of increases to user fees for everything from drivers licenses to fishing licenses in Nova Scotia.
The Finance Minister announced the changes which will hike user fees by two per cent on eight specific acts in the province.
Graham Steele only spoke specifically to the changes to the Corporations Registrations Act.
“So every time that an insurance broker wants to get a license or an insurance company wants to register, they’re going to be paying two per cent more,” said Steele following the bill briefing.
“It just seems reasonable that for those kinds of fees that the person actually getting the benefit should pay for it because the alternative is to put it on the general tax base,” said Steele.
Liberal finance critic Leo Glavine says the changes are affecting average Nova Scotias and not just corporations.
“It’s a tax grab of the worst kind because people use services, permits on a daily basis,” said the critic.
Fee changes are being implemented in the Companies Act, Corporations Registration Act, Motor Vehicle Act, Payment into Court Act, Personal Property Security Act, Probate Act, Summary Proceedings Act and Trust and Loan Companies Act.
The Financial Measures Act announced today is also allowing for improvements to tobacco enforcement, and amending the Municipal-Provincial funding agreement.
