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New Substances Program - Operational Policies Manual

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3. Processing New Substances Notifications


3.B. Operational Policy for Processing Fees and Refunds

Purpose

This document describes Environment Canada's operational policy for processing fees and refunds for new substances (chemicals and polymers) and other services under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999), the New Substances Fees Regulations (NSFR) and the New Substances Notification Regulations (NSNR).

Application

This policy applies to the assessment of new substance notifications and other services for new chemicals and polymers. Other services include

  • confidential searches of substances appearing on the Domestic Substances List (DSL) or Non-Domestic Substances List (NDSL) that have been published under masked names;
  • masked name applications; and
  • applications for a service under the Arrangement for Sharing of Information (the "Four Corners Arrangement") between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Environment Canada and Health Canada.

At this time, the New Substances Fees Regulations, and therefore this policy, do not apply to:

  • biochemicals, biopolymers, living organisms or animate products of biotechnology; or
  • substances whose use is regulated under another Act of Parliament, whether or not it is listed in Schedules 2 or 4 of CEPA 1999.

Context

Under Section 81 and Section 106 of CEPA 1999, importers and manufacturers of new substances must provide prescribed information so that the Environment Canada and Health Canada can assess the new substances to determine if they are "toxic" (in accordance with the criteria set out in section 64 of CEPA 1999) or capable of becoming "toxic." A substance is considered "new" if it is not listed on the DSL. The information requirements are established in the New Substances Notification Regulations (NSNR).

As of January 1, 2003, notifiers of new chemicals and polymers must pay a fee as established in the New Substances Fees Regulations (NSFR). The fees for a notification assessment range from $50 to $3,500, with reductions available for staged, matched, or consolidated notifications, and for notifiers having total annual sales in Canada of $40 million or less. In addition to fees for notification assessments, the regulations include fees for other services, including confidential searches of the DSL or the NDSL, masked name applications, and Four Corners Arrangement submissions.

The Financial Administration Act and its Repayment of Receipts Regulations, 1997 generally apply for determining when refunds are warranted.

Operational Policy

The fees and refund operational policy is summarized in Table 1 and described in the following sections.

Table 1: Summary of Fees and Refund Operational Policy
Status of PaymentEffect on ServicesApplicable Refund
No payment with submissionSubmission is returned to notifier.Not applicable
Insufficient payment  
  • Service(s) for the same substance
All services are suspended until full payment is received.Not applicable
  • Services for different substances
  
  • Fees clearly identified for each service
Services are rendered for fully paid requests; other services are suspended until payment is received.Not applicable
  • Fees not clearly identified for each service
All services are suspended until payment is received.Not applicable
Exact paymentServices are rendered.Payments are not refundable once full services are rendered.
OverpaymentServices are rendered.Overpayment is refunded.
Valid withdrawn requests  
  • Services not rendered
Services are terminated.Full payment is refunded.
  • Partial services rendered
Services are terminated.A portion of applicable fees are retained.
Unnecessary servicesSubmission is returned to notifier.Full payment is refunded.
Previous notifications made before January 1, 2003Services are rendered.Payment corresponding to previous schedules is refunded.
Exact Payment

If the exact payment for any service has been received, the service will be rendered.

No Payment

If payment is not received with the submission, the services will not be rendered and the submission will be returned to the notifier (notice of rejection).

Insufficient Payment

Single or Multiple Services for the Same Substance

If the payment is insufficient to cover the service(s) associated with a single substance, all services, including assessments of notifications, will be suspended until full payment is received.

Example: A submission contains a notification, a masked name application, and a payment covering the notification only. Evaluation of the notification and masked name application will be suspended until the full payment for the masked name application is received.

Note: Payment for a Masked Name application can be made with any notification regardless of the Schedule being submitted, and it is only required to be paid once per substance per notifier. However, it is only necessary to ensure that payment for the Masked Name application is made, or has been made, when submitting what will be the final notification for a substance, that is, a Schedule II (where the substance is on the NDSL), a Schedule III, a Schedule VI (final), a Schedule VII or a Schedule VIII.

Multiple Services for Different Substances

If the submission clearly identifies the fees associated with each substance, only the services for which full payment was received will be rendered. Other services will be suspended until full payment is received.

Example: A submission contains separate notifications for substances A and B, an exact payment for one notification, and a fee form clearly indicating that the payment applies to substance A. The service for substance A will be rendered. The service for substance B will be suspended until the full payment is received.

If one payment is sent for multiple services without clearly identifying the fees associated with each substance, all services will be suspended until full payment is received.

Example: A submission contains separate notifications for two different substances and a payment for only one notification. Since it is not clear that the payment applies to a specific notification, all services will be suspended until the full payment is received or until receipt of the fee form indicating to which notification the fees apply.

Overpayment

If the payment exceeds the fee prescribed by the NSFR, the service will be rendered and the overpayment will be refunded. Overpayments will not be retained "on account" as deposits for future notifications or other services.

Withdrawn Service Requests

If the notifier withdraws a notification or other service request before any service has been rendered, a full refund will be issued. If the notifier withdraws its notification or other service and partial services have been rendered, a portion of the fee prescribed by the NSFR will be retained. If the notifier withdraws a notification but full services have already been rendered, no refund will be issued.

Unnecessary Services

If a notification is not required by the NSNR (e.g. if the substance is already listed on the DSL), the service will not be rendered and the submission will be returned to the notifier along with a full refund.

Previous Notifications Made Before January 1, 2003

"Subsequent" notification fees consist of the amount set out in the applicable schedule of the NSFR, less any amount previously paid for the assessment of that substance under any previous schedules. If the previous schedules were notified before January 1, 2003 when no fees were applicable, the notifier must pay the full amount for initial fees or final fees as prescribed in the NSFR for the subsequent notification.

However, to respect the intent of the regulations, previous notifications will be considered when determining refunds. When full payment is made for a notification and previous schedules were notified before January 1, 2003, the fees corresponding to the previously notified schedules will be refunded.

In these cases, refunds will only be issued upon written request from notifiers. To facilitate the process, notifiers should clearly identify the New Substance Notification (NSN) numbers of any previous notifications on the current submission. The NSN number is a number assigned to a specific file/notification package in order to track it through the notification, assessment and post-assessment process.

Example: A submission contains a Schedule III notification and a payment of $3,500, along with a request for a refund associated with previous Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 notifications that were made before January 1, 2003. A total of $2,200 will be refunded, which corresponds to the fees for the previously notified schedules ($200 for Schedule I and $2,000 for Schedule II).

Notifications received prior to January 1, 2003 and for which prescribed information was missing are subject to the NSFR upon submission of missing information.

Related Information

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