Remission of Uncollected Passport Fee Increases

Summary#

This is the final Remission Order titled Adjustment of Certain Fees Under the Passport and Other Travel Document Services Fees Regulations Remission Order (SI/2026-12). It cancels (remits) debts the government would otherwise try to collect because some passport fee increases were not applied as required. The order remits $9,685,140 for missed adjustments tied to old regulatory formulas and up to $5,703,413 for missed Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustments — together up to $15,388,553.

What it does#

• Remits amounts the government would have collected for fee increases that were not applied under the old Passport and Other Travel Document Services Fees Regulations:
  • For the period April 1, 2025 to January 25, 2026, it remits the difference between what should have been charged and what was charged for several passport services outside Canada (notably adult 10‑year, adult 5‑year, and child 5‑year regular passports). Total remitted: $9,685,140.
• Remits amounts tied to missed CPI indexation under the Service Fees Act:
  • For the period April 1, 2019 to March 30, 2027, it remits unpaid CPI-related increases for three specific fees: the urgent/expedited pickup fee ($110), the weekend or statutory holiday (same‑day/out‑of‑hours) service fee ($335), and the temporary passport fee ($110). The total remitted for these is up to $5,703,413.
  • It also sets the treatment of those fees for March 31, 2026, applying a 14.5% increase that reflects CPI from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2026. The order removes the smaller amounts that would otherwise be collected from past years.
• For the year March 31, 2026 to March 30, 2027, the order limits collection for three listed fees to the portions above these thresholds:
  • Anything above $125.75 for the fee in paragraph 7(a) of the schedule.
  • Anything above $383.50 for the fee in item 8 of the schedule.
  • Anything above $125.75 for the fee in item 10 of the schedule.

Who's affected#

• People who applied for passports or urgent passport services and would have been charged the missed increases. The biggest impacts identified are for Canadians getting passports outside Canada:
  • Adult regular passport (outside Canada), 10‑year and 5‑year.
  • Child regular passport (outside Canada), 5‑year.
• People who used expedited or after‑hours passport services — the urgent/expedited pickup fee, same‑day/out‑of‑hours fee, and temporary passport fee.
• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the Passport Program, because the order changes what the Passport Revolving Fund will record and report.
• The public generally, because the government is choosing not to pursue small unpaid increases from many past clients.

Why it matters#

• It prevents the government from trying to collect many small, retrospective fee increases from millions of people. That collection would be costly and hard to do, and clients likely would not know about the small past amounts.
• It clears a specific accounting problem for the Passport Revolving Fund so the Fund’s revenues and costs balance without chasing minor debts.
• It signals that some past fee‑setting approaches (automatic formulas and CPI timing) did not match how the Passport Program actually operates. IRCC says it will address fee design in a broader review of passport fees.
• The remissions will be reported in IRCC’s public fees reports and accounts, so the totals and reasoning will appear in government financial reporting.