B.C. making big profit on drivers’ licenses, says auditor
British Columbia’s auditor general says the provincial government is making huge profits on some of the fees it charges, including millions from the cost of driver’s licenses. Auditor John Doyle says the province makes a 650 percent profit every time a driver’s license is renewed in the province.
“We found that the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) collected, on behalf of the Province, $36.5 million in 2010/11 (compared with $35.4 million in 2009/10) from the $75 driver’s licence issuance and renewal fee. The most recent information related to this fee indicates that issuing licences actually costs ICBC only $10 per licence. ICBC receives no portion of the revenue to offset this expense,” wrote auditor John Dolye in a new report released on December 2.
“Furthermore, while provincial policy allows government to charge fees in excess of actual cost, the $75 charged for a $10 cost in this example appears to represent a significant profit,” he added.
Dolye’s report calls for the government to make public the costs of the goods and services and how the public’s associated fees are used. Doyle said that of the 2,332 fees currently tracked by the treasury Board, nearly 30 percent haven’t been revised in over a decade.
“The fee-setting process must be effectively managed and transparent so that stakeholders understand how fees are calculated and can hold government to account for its fee-setting decisions,” the report said.
Doyle recommended that the fee-setting process and the rationale for the fees charged “be transparent and readily available to the public.”
The report is available online. (PDF)
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