Minister's message

I am pleased to present the Department of Justice’s report on fees for 2022–23.

The Department charges fees under two groupings, namely Family Law and Legal Services. Family Law fees are set by act or regulation and Legal Services fees are set by contract. Family Law includes two programs: the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act (FOAEAA) and the Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings (CRDP). The FOAEAA program charges a fee to support debtors for processing garnishee summons under Part II of the Act. Any fee, or part of that fee, that remains payable after an application has been active for one year or at the expiry of the garnishee summons is cancelled. The CRDP program charges a fee to a person who files an application for divorce in Canada and receives services under section 5 of the CRDP Regulations. Legal Services fees are charged to third parties (such as Crown corporations, non-federal organizations, and international organizations) for legal services rendered.

Photo of The Honourable Arif Virani

The Department’s fee regime is seeing a slow return to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the numbers of applications for garnishment and in divorce registrations. For example, the total amounts garnished in 2020-21 under the FOAEAA program were the highest ever, due to the increased number of people who were entitled to more federal funds and benefits during the pandemic (such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)). These amounts decreased in 2021-22 and again in 2022-23, in part because there were fewer garnishment applications once the CERB program ended. The CRDP program collected less revenue in 2022-23 since there were fewer divorce applications compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The Department recently conducted reviews of all its fees in accordance with the Service Fees Act (SFA) and the Directive on Charging and Special Financial Authorities.

I welcome the transparency and oversight of the SFA’s reporting regime and am fully committed to continuing to meet its requirements.

The Honourable Arif Virani, P.C., M.P.

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada