Charging Fees to Non-Members

In BSA Diagnostics Imaging Inc. v The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, 2017 ONSC 1950, the Divisional Court upheld the legal authority of a regulator to charge fees to non-members. In most situations (e.g., a fee for accessing information) the regulator can simply insist on payment of the fee before providing the service. However, in BSA, the College was, at the request of the provincial government, conducting an assessment of an independent health facility governed under a different statute. The Court determined that the two pieces of legislation worked together and that the by-law imposing the fee to the non-member for the assessment was valid. As a result the regulator was entitled to sue for the recovery of the fee in court. This decision may have turned on the wording of the particular legislative provisions.