Review of the Handling of Public
Money Project — Final Report
4.5 Federal Institutions Using a Similar Payment Process (Department of Fisheries and Oceans)
DFO is another government institution using an operation similar to HPM. Therefore, it was used for comparison purposes.
DFO has implemented a system to simplify the management of its commercial
fishing registration and licensing. The system is similar to CIC’s
HPM system in that
DFO’s clients (fishers) can pay their licence
and vessel registration fees at any participating financial institution.
DFO was the first federal department to use the Canadian Payment Association’s
Rule H6, which gave its clients the opportunity to pay fees at any financial
institution in Canada. (CIC was the second such institution.) At present,
this alternative service delivery system has been implemented in the provinces
of Quebec, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It should be implemented
in the Pacific Region by summer 2001.
However, whereas CIC
only allows payment by HPM receipt (exceptions excluded),
DFO still allows its clients to
either mail their payments to DFO or pay
directly at a local office (although it would like to reduce use of this
last option), in addition to paying directly at a bank. DFO’s initial
pilot results showed, for the Quebec Region in 1997 and 1998, a slight
decrease in payments made at a DFO office (4 percent) but a significant
decrease in mail-in payments (16 percent), as fishers began to pay at
banks. The implementation of this system at DFO has decreased the number
of clients paying directly at DFO offices, thereby allowing offices to
redeploy staff to other value-added tasks, such as providing information
for fishers and new fishing management tools.
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Recommendation 10
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Management Response
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- Date Modified:
