Subject: Administrative Fees For Public Land Transactions
Policy: PL 6.02.01
Compiled by – Branch: Crown Forests and Lands Policy Branch
Section: Crown Lands Policy Section
Date issued: January 24, 2024
Replaces directive title: Same
Number: PL 6.02.01
Date issued: April 1, 2023

1.0 Introduction

This policy and related Fee Schedule summarize administrative fees to be applied province-wide to recover the Ministry’s administrative costs of processing various pre-disposition, disposition and post-disposition public lands transactions.

2.0 Objectives

  1. To recover the cost of providing pre-disposition, disposition, and post-disposition services to the beneficiaries of those services.

    Treasury Board policy requires all ministries to regularly review services and rates to ensure that the cost of providing services to the public is borne by those who benefit from the service and charges reflect program costs.

  2. To obtain a fair price for the removal of conditions in letters patent for public land that was sold for less than market value.
  3. To ensure that the federal Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is collected where applicable.

  4. To keep administrative fees current through annual adjustment consistent with the Ontario Consumer Price Index (OCPI) on a compounded basis.

    The Fee Schedule will be amended annually to adjust the applicable fees according to the OCPI.

    The annual OCPI adjustment of fees shall become effective on April 1 of any given year as applicable and shall be determined as follows:

    1. The fees, as they may have been adjusted and applied in the previous fiscal year, shall be adjusted by the percentage change in the OCPI as reported by Statistics Canada under the authority of the Statistics Act (Canada), averaged over the 12-month period that ends on December 31 of the previous calendar year.
    2. Despite paragraph a), if the percentage change of OCPI for a given calendar year is negative, the fees payable for the fiscal year shall remain at the same level as for the previous fiscal year.
    3. Where an annual average or the percentage computed under paragraph a) or where the rate of the charge thus adjusted has more than two decimals, only the first two decimals are kept and the second decimal is increased by one unit if the third decimal is 5 or over.
    4. The fees are adjusted annually by the OCPI on a compounded basis, unless expressly indicated otherwise in this directive.

3.0 Administrative fees

3.1 Pre-disposition fees

The administrative fee set out in Section 1 of the Fee Schedule will be charged to recover the Crown land surveyor, administrative and technical costs of preparing site descriptions from existing survey information, where no plan is prepared.

The service of preparing a one-part plan and description, and/or a description and sketch of more than one part has been discontinued. Since 1997, there have been few requests for these plans or sketches to be prepared by the Crown Land Surveys Unit of the Office of the Surveyor General. If required, the client will be required to obtain the plan or sketches from a private Ontario Land Surveyor.

Site description fees will not be indexed by the OCPI at this time, but the fee will be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the fee amount recovers the Ministry’s administrative costs of processing various transactions.

The applicable fee shall be collected before requesting Crown Land Surveys Unit of the Office of the Surveyor General to prepare the required description.

3.2 Disposition fees

Where a policy dictates or approval is given to dispose of public lands for an administrative fee rather than at market value, the fee to be charged must be one that will recover the costs incurred by the Ministry to complete the transaction.

The fees for the following dispositions are set out in Section 2 of the Fee Schedule

  1. Transfer of administration and control by Minister’s Order
  2. Quit Claim Letters Patent
  3. Sale and Patent – sales of shoreline reserves, road allowances, and small strips of Crown land where market value is not warranted.
  4. Lease (when no annual rent applies) – one-time fee
  5. Lease (where annual rent applies) – initial first issuance of lease and any subsequent new lease, excluding lease renewal
  6. Single Licence of Occupation (LO) (when no annual fee applies) – one-time fee
  7. Licence of Occupation (when annual fee applies) – initial first issuance of single LO, and any subsequent new LO
  8. Multi-site Licence of Occupation – one-time fee. This fee is not required for communication towers when the Licence is amended to include additional tower(s) or to delete tower locations.
  9. Land Use Permit – issuance of initial land use permit to the applicant, excluding land use permit for Type B Commercial Outpost Camps
  10. Land Use Permit – issuance of new LUP upon expiration of a previous LUP, permitting same activity at same location

  11. Land Use Permit – issuance of a land use permit authorizing peat exploration

    The issuance fee for a land use permit authorizing peat exploration will not be indexed by the OCPI at this time, but will be reviewed on regular basis.

  12. Easement – one-time fee (see Easement (Grants of) Policy PL 4.11.04)
  13. Beach Management Agreement

In addition to the above fees, an applicant is responsible for the cost of any required survey, plan or description.

3.3 Post-disposition fees

3.3.1 Transaction fees

Where an occupational authority document or an extension thereof does not specify in its own terms and conditions what the fee amount of the following transactions shall be, the fee set out in Section 3.1 of the Fee Schedule apply:

  1. Assignment of a sale
  2. Consent to transfer, assign, renew, sub-lease, mortgage, charge, debenture, or other financial dealings with a licence of occupation, easement, Crown lease, and Summer Resort Lease (excluding mining leases).
  3. Amending agreement, requested by a lessee or the holder of an easement, including partial surrender of a Water Power Lease Agreement.

3.3.2 Annual administrative fees

The annual administrative fees set out in Section 3.2 of the Fee Schedule apply to the following instruments (leases, licences of occupation and land use permits) with terms longer than one year, starting at year 2 and are part of the annual fee/rent formula per Table B of PL 6.01.02 Crown Land Rental Policy.

  1. Land Use Permit – annual administrative fee
  2. Licence of Occupation – annual administrative fee
  3. Lease – annual administrative fee

3.3.3 Voidance certificates

The fees set out in section 3.3 of the Fee Schedule apply

  1. For a certificate issued under the Public Lands Act (PLA) Section 61 (4) for the voidance of the mines and minerals reservation in some letters patent
  2. For a certificate issued under PLA Subsection 69 (1) for a condition, provision or reservation that is void by a section found in the current PLA

3.3.4 Releasing orders

The administrative fees set out in Section 3.4 of the Fee Schedule shall be charged for each of the following released restrictions.

  1. An order releasing a land use condition under PLA Section 19 or releasing a restriction in the habendum or other restrictions in letters patent under PLA section 19.1(1), (See Sections 3.3.4.1 and 3.3.4.2)
  2. Fee for an Order in Council authorizing the release of a restriction in the habendum in letters patent.
  3. Roads or access to shore (includes right-of-way reservation) – PLA S. 66(1) or 66(2)
  4. Trees (any or all species) – PLA S. 68.1 (2)
  5. Sand and gravel – PLA S. 68.1 (2)
  6. Others (e.g. fishery clause, access, surface rights in roads, percent of surface rights in roads, railway R-O-W not constructed) – PLA S. 68.1 (2)
3.3.4.1 Release of Land Use Condition "It is a condition of these letters patent that the lands be used for purposes only”

The determination of the value to be placed upon the release takes into consideration the current market value of the property, the length of time the land has been patented, and the monies already paid. Section 119 (9) of the Land Titles Act prescribes that: "Where a condition, restriction or covenant has been registered as annexed to or running with the land and no period or date was fixed for its expiry, the condition, restriction or covenant is deemed to have expired forty years after the condition, restriction or covenant was registered, and may be deleted from the register by the land registrar".

While it is recognized that the section does not apply to conditions placed in Crown grants, the forty year time period in the development of a sliding scale for the determination of the price shall be used for release of those conditions. Therefore, if the property was patented more than forty years ago, prior to the request to release the condition, the fee for releasing the condition will be the administrative fee as indicated in Section 3.4 (PLA S. 19) of the Fee Schedule.

The release price is determined by a devaluation of the percentage of the current market value to be reduced at the rate of 2.5% per year from the date of patent. If the disposition was originally made for an administrative fee, the price paid initially is to be deducted from the release price determined. Should the value resulting from this calculation be less than the current administrative fee, the latter should be collected (see Section 3.4 of the Fee Schedule - PLA S. 19).

Example:

Year of patent: 1972
Year of release: 1997
Current Market Value: $10,000.00
Initial fee (in 1966): $100.00

Release Price

= {100% − [(1997 − 1972) × 2.5%]} × $10,000 − $100
= [(100% − 62.5%) × $10,000] − $100
= (37.5% ×$10,000) −$100
= $3750 −$100
= $3650

In certain dispositions made for agricultural purposes, the grantee was required to pay a percentage of market value rather than an administrative fee. In such situations, the determination of the release price should reflect this fact. For example, an individual who paid 50% of market value in the first instance would only be assessed the remaining 50% of the sliding scale value of the current market value (i.e. release in year 25 would be at 50% of 37.5% = 18.75% market value ($1875 in the example given)). If the original grant was made at full market value, the release is provided for the administrative fee set out in Section 3.4 (PLA S. 19) of the Fee Schedule.

3.3.4.2 Release of a land use restriction in a habendum clause

A "habendum clause" (also known as the ‘to have and hold’ clause) as "the part of a deed (or letters patent) that defines the extent of the interest being granted and any conditions affecting the grant."footnote 1 The introductory words to the clause are ordinarily "to have and to hold".

Some letters patent contain a clause in the habendum of a document that the land is to be used only for specified purposes (e.g. to have and to hold unto the said [grantee’s name] for the purposes of said [purpose]). This practice often occurred in letters patent issued prior to 1959 when the Public Lands Act was amended footnote 2 to provide for the insertion of a land use condition through PLA Section 18, and the release of that land use condition under PLA Section 19.

A restriction in the habendum clause may be released by a Minister’s order (PLA Section 19.1(1)) or the issuance of supplementary letters patent, authorized by Order in Council.

The fees to release this restriction by Minister’s Order or Order in Council and supplementary letters patent are the fees in Section 3.4 of the Fee Schedule, if the letters patent were issued over 40 years prior to the request to release the condition. If at the time of application, the letters patent were less than 40 years old, the formula outlined in Section 3.3.4.1 should be followed, except that the minimum fee is as listed in Section 3.4 of the Fee Schedule.

3.4 Building condition - time extension fees

The fees set out in Section 3.5 of the Fee Schedule apply for an extension of time to the building condition clause for the performance of a term or condition of a sale or lease of public lands for a period of one year. At this time, this fee is not subject to OCPI indexing.

3.5 Document fees

The fees set out in Section 3.6 of the Fee Schedule apply for the production of certified copies or non-certified copies of documents produced by the ministry’s Crown Land Registry including: Licences of Occupation, Crown Leases, Crown Easements, Water Power Lease Agreements, Patent Records, and Minister Orders.

Crown leases and Crown easements are registered and copies should be obtained from the Land Registry Office. However original Letters Patent issued before 1964, in areas where the Land Titles registration system was not available may not have been registered, in which case a copy can be obtained from Crown Land Registry. Letters Patent after 1964 and in areas where the Land Titles registration system was available were registered in the local Land Registry Office.

4.0 Definitions

In this policy,

“Ontario Consumer Price Index (OCPI)” means the annual average consumer price index, non-seasonally adjusted, for Ontario for all items, as determined by Statistics Canada. The index provides a broad measure of the cost of living in Ontario in the prices paid by consumers for a shopping basket of consumer goods and services from the general categories of an average household’s expenditure – food, shelter, furniture, clothing, transportation, and recreation. Changes in the index over time provide a broad measure of the cost of living.

5.0 References

5.1 Legislative

  • Public Lands Act, Subsections 61 (4), 66 (1) & (2), and 69 (1)
  • Land Titles Act, Subsection 119 (9)

5.2 Directive cross references

  • PL 2.07.01 HST Application to Public Lands Transactions
  • PL 4.03.01 Release and Voidance of Restrictions in Land Grants
  • PL 4.11.04 Easements (Grants of)
  • PL 6.01.02 Crown Land Rental Policy
  • FOR 5.05.45 Valuation of Trees Reserved to the Crown on Patented Lands for Release of Tree Reservations - Forest Management Directives and Procedures Handbook