OPSI - UNENACTED working proposal

v308 | 2026-10-28T08:18:56+00:00 | Corpus 85

DRAFT REGULATION OF THE MINISTER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE FIRE SAFETY ACT

MINISTERIAL REGULATION RESPECTING FINANCING OF THE ORDER AND REGISTRY FEES

I - PURPOSE AND PRINCIPLES

Section 1 | ART_2FAY2HY8NCTQ8TDX | Version 12

This regulation is made by the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act under section 35 of the Fire Safety Practitioners Act, after consulting the Order and the Office des professions du Québec and in accordance with legally prescribed formalities, including the Regulations Act (chapter R-18.1). It fixes the central-registry and pre-registry establishment, filing and access charges, amounts, conditions for payment, exemptions, collection and refund procedures, and indexation rules. The Order only administers and collects those amounts within the prescribed limits. Members’ dues continue to be determined by the board of directors under the Professional Code.

This Regulation promotes simplicity, predictability, transparency, proportionality and the absence of private enrichment. Transitional and ordinary fees apply only to the eligible acts and documents prescribed by the Act; their proceeds support the Order’s integrated regulatory scheme without being financially earmarked for the registry function alone. Tariff-supporting records document the purpose and fee base, direct and shared costs, and reasonable needs of the integrated regulatory scheme; pooling does not authorize fees without a legal basis or excessive collections. No personal financial benefit is distributed to members.

The transitional establishment fee applies before regional documentary activation only to eligible reports; the ordinary filing fee replaces it after activation for eligible standalone professional documents. The same report may not incur both fees merely because it is later entered into the registry.

Basic dues, transitional and ordinary registry fees and legally available access charges are paid into the Order’s single general operating fund. Analytical records identify each revenue category and the corresponding costs for accountability and fee review without mandating ring-fenced accounts, source-based reserves or a general prohibition on transfers between the Order’s functions. Amounts legally subject to particular purposes remain separate, including trust funds and legally constituted insurance or compensation fund assets. Net income from general trust accounts is not part of the operating fund and is governed by section 40 of the Act.

II - BASIC ANNUAL DUES

Section 2 | ART_XPPQSDKF7PS0F656 | Version 4

Members’ annual dues are set by the board of directors in accordance with section 85.1 of the Professional Code, following consultations under sections 103.1 and 104 and subject to approvals required for special assessments. This regulation made by the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act neither fixes nor changes professional dues. Solely for the proposed scheme's financial planning assumptions, the envisaged basic annual dues for an active member are $250; this assumption neither imposes dues nor binds the board of directors in exercising its statutory authority.

Professional dues are separate from the mandatory contribution toward the Office des professions du Québec, other legally required contributions and, where applicable, a separate contribution to the group professional liability insurance scheme.

Section 3 | ART_VCXG5M4T8W7ZG7MY | Version 4

Before each financial year, the board reviews consolidated financial needs and prepares member consultation on dues in accordance with sections 85.1, 103.1 and 104 of the Professional Code. It considers revenues and expenses across all functions of the Order, including the registry, the roll, professional inspection, the syndic, discipline and professional liability insurance, along with commitments, justified reserves and legally unavailable amounts. Registry fees are tracked analytically to support proportionality and any review of the fee schedule by the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act without prohibiting the common use of revenues paid to the general fund. Any payment to the Foundation remains subject to statutory conditions and the Order’s obligations.

Any adjustment of annual dues may consider changes in costs, authorized revenues and the financial capacity of the Order. The amount determined by the board and its financial reasons are published in accordance with statutory duties after the required consultations. Any special assessment is subject to the approvals prescribed by the Professional Code.

III - REGISTRY FEES

Section 4 | ART_JBQYR5M8LSEX3RQ8 | Version 10

In a legally activated region, the ordinary electronic filing fee is initially $10 per eligible standalone professional document, before any legally applicable taxes, for the categories exhaustively listed in section 5. Before activation, the transitional establishment fee is prescribed at the same rate but applies only to eligible professional verification, inspection or testing reports. The same report cannot be subject to both fees merely because it is later integrated into the registry.

The initial $10 rate remains in force before the first regional documentary activation of the central registry and through 31 December of the calendar year of that first activation, including in regions not yet activated. Beginning the following 1 January, the rate in effect on the preceding 31 December is multiplied by the ratio of Québec’s all-items CPI for July of the preceding year to the CPI for July of the year before that, using unadjusted monthly figures published by the Institut de la statistique du Québec. If that ratio is one or less, the rate remains unchanged. The resulting amount is rounded to the nearest cent, with half a cent rounded up. Both fees have the same annual rate. Before any collection, the Order publishes the index figures, calculation, effective date and applicable rate, without power to change them. This regulatory indexation allows neither an additional charge nor a discretionary increase.

No separate fee is payable for a technical operation correcting a transmission error attributable to the registry.

Section 5 | ART_98DXDFYLXVS09UKE | Version 5

After legal activation of the relevant region, only professional documents produced or approved for a covered building under paragraphs 1 to 5 of section 15 of the Act are eligible for the ordinary fee: 1. an verification, inspection or testing report under section 8; 2. a fire safety plan (PDSI) approved under section 10 by a fire safety practitioner (PSI) or another legally authorized person; 3. independently approved professional evacuation directives, procedures or documents, together with their integrated diagrams; 4. a legally required professional exercise evaluation, report or attestation; and 5. a legally required professional attestation concerning building staff training or competence. Before activation, only the report in item 1 attracts the transitional fee. Non-compliance notices and disclosures and their follow-ups and closures, individual certificates not subject to mandatory filing, ordinary exercise reports, purely administrative documents and buildings outside the scheme remain excluded. A preliminary and final report for the same verification, inspection or test together form one chargeable filing.

Each genuinely standalone professional document under the preceding paragraph attracts only one fee regardless of the number of buildings, owners, pages, attachments, diagrams or systems concerned. Diagrams and procedures integrated into an approved PDSI attract no separate fee. Evacuation directives are separately chargeable only if they have been separately professionally approved and filed as a genuinely distinct document, rather than through artificial splitting of the PDSI. Corrections, modifications, partial reviews and retransmissions of the same current document already charged do not give rise to an additional fee. Later integration of a report already subject to the transitional fee creates no second charge. The fee is not based on floor area, property value or commercial category.

A photograph, video, audio recording or other supporting file bearing a DPJ_ identifier supplements an official filing and is not a separate professional document subject to the unit fee. The Order may not create a charge per exhibit, file, addition, legally free consultation or regularization; obligations applicable to a genuinely separate professional document remain unchanged.

Section 6 | ART_FL0N7V4DWLBMH5WE | Version 3

Before a region’s legal activation date, and only after the Order has been legally constituted and authorized to operate, the transitional fee at the applicable annual rate is collected for each new eligible professional report. It falls under the general designation “Fee for establishment and operation of the Order and the central registry of OPSI” in section 35, without requiring PDFs or EDF_ identifiers to be filed in the pre-registry.

Section 7 | ART_ZX8NN5BTGBVYJTRV | Version 1

An eligible professional report already subject to the transitional charge incurs no second charge upon official voluntary filing, transfer or continued retention after regional activation. Evidence of payment is reconciled with the document’s permanent identifier without treating the pre-registry declaration as a complete filing.

Voluntary filing of another eligible document before activation does not trigger the ordinary charge, and keeping it after that date creates no retrospective charge. A new standalone professional revision remains subject to any charge lawfully applicable to it.

Fictitious tests and pilot access are free of charge. The tariff rules in sections 4 and 5 remain unchanged.

Section 8 | ART_6E7HT8CR7LRTJ25W | Version 3

The initial $10 fee and its indexation apply only to the eligible professional reports and documents described in section 5, never to danger disclosures, reportable non-compliance notices, outside-mandate communications, updates, supplements, follow-ups or administrative closures relating to a report. A disclosure remains free even if the same facts appear in a PDSI, report or other professional document otherwise subject to a fee. An outside-mandate report cannot be artificially turned into a chargeable professional filing or trigger the transitional fee.

At the annual rate then applicable, a separate filing of a document in one of the five eligible categories after the professional work has been fully repeated and approved under section 15 of the Act is a new chargeable filing, even before the previous due date or without substantive changes. A correction, modification or partial review of the current document creates no new fee.

The registry retains the cycle reference date, the periodic due date, the original filing and every version. The next due date is calculated under section 15 of the Act, independently of invoicing.

Section 9 | ART_PPJ67YU48ZYE0RRC | Version 8

The applicable fee must be shown on its own line on every invoice, payment request or collection document, stating the prescribed label, the applicable annual unit rate, initially set at $10, the number of eligible professional filings and the resulting amount. It may appear on the same invoice as professional services but must never be absorbed into or concealed within professional fees, commercial charges or any lump-sum or all-inclusive service price. It remains itemized even where a summary amount payable is shown.

Whenever a written quotation, estimate, offer of service or contractual proposal is given before service that may result in an eligible professional document, the fee must also appear on a line separate from the services. The document specifies the applicable annual rate per standalone document, the expected number and separate estimated amount when reasonably ascertainable. If the final number is not yet known, it must clearly state that the fee total depends on the actual number of eligible professional filings and explain the calculation method, without bundling the fee into a fixed service price. An unknown final total does not excuse omission of the unit rate.

Where work is arranged without a written quote, the professional, employer or authorized collector shall give the customer written notice before the work of the applicable annual rate per eligible professional document and of its separate appearance on the invoice. Any known change to the expected number of eligible filings must be communicated to the customer in writing as soon as reasonably ascertainable and before the corresponding invoice. These disclosure requirements neither authorize artificially multiplying documents or their annexes nor permit collection outside the scheme’s legal scope.

Before regional activation, the label is “OPSI central registry establishment fee — [current annual amount]”. After activation, it is “Filing fee — Central registry of OPSI — [current annual amount]”. On an actual document, the bracketed expression is replaced by the published rate in dollars and cents effective when the fee becomes payable, and is not printed literally. Both forms are part of the funding scheme defined in section 35 of the Act.

Section 10 | ART_A4WGGU0B6ZH3AVNA | Version 1

A professional, employer or other legally appointed collector acting for the Order may not add a markup, margin or disguised administrative surcharge. The sum is not the collector’s professional or commercial revenue.

The fee is borne by the owner of the covered building even if the service contract is with a third party. Where several covered owners are concerned by a single standalone professional document, allocation and collection follow legally enforceable rules without multiple charges. An owner of a building outside the scheme is not liable for this fee on that account.

No regulatory-fee line or processing surcharge is issued for a free disclosure. Where a separate eligible professional document exists, only that report's own filing fee may be invoiced; disclosure of the dangers described in it never produces a second line item or surcharge.

Where applicable, the invoice or receipt indicates whether the transaction is an original filing, a fee-free correction linked to the original filing, or a new chargeable professional or periodic revision, without charging twice for the same operation. The documentary linkage and validity period are preserved. A correction neither incurs a new unit fee nor postpones the next due date.

Section 11 | ART_2DXET2ZTK8TPMMWU | Version 3

GST, QST or any other tax is added to the filing fee only to the extent required by applicable tax legislation.

Taxes collected in respect of the filing fee are accounted for separately and are not revenue of the Order for purposes of calculating the reserve or surpluses.

This Regulation creates no tax exemption that does not otherwise exist in law.

Tax treatment of the fee is determined by applicable tax law; characterization as a regulatory fee does not relieve anyone from collecting a tax legally payable.

Section 12 | ART_1HFXGBCEDDK4D9XB | Version 3

No disclosure of reportable non-compliance, eligible preventive report, substantiated report requiring verification, or supplement, follow-up, correction or administrative closure may depend on advance or later payment of a charge. The registry immediately receives and routes these free communications. Where a separate eligible professional report is also required, a payment dispute that may endanger public protection cannot delay its filing; the fee applicable solely to that report may then be invoiced, but never extended to the disclosure.

Section 13 | ART_CXEGCNBM4P1D24KF | Version 5

Full or partial exemptions from the filing and transitional fees are exclusively those prescribed by this regulation made by the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act, subject to the protections provided by the Act. The Order applies the published objective exemptions and criteria; it may not create, withdraw or change their conditions by resolution, directive or administrative decision. Any amendment requires a regulation made by that Minister after consulting the Order and the Office des professions du Québec and observing required procedures.

Exemption criteria are applied uniformly and published in an accessible manner.

These exemptions and protections must also be observed during transitional reporting: no new fee may be charged for a document excluded from the scheme or for a correction already billed.

Free disclosure and related follow-up operations are mandated directly by the Act and are not discretionary exemptions from fees for eligible reports. Administrative amendment of this regulation cannot reduce that protection. Free receipt of a danger report never waives amounts normally due for a separate eligible professional report.

Section 14 | ART_K7TH9FGCT6LAH9D9 | Version 6

The annual fee for authorization and use of an individual professional account is $50 for a person legally authorized to file documents in the registry who is not a member of the Order and does not exclusively use an organizational account under the following paragraph. This individual fee is not charged to Order members merely because they use the registry in their professional capacity; their membership dues are governed by the board of directors under the Professional Code.

For an organization authorized to hold an organizational registry account, the annual fee is $500 plus $25 per individually authorized natural person who acts through that account during the annual period. The organization pays these amounts. Use covered exclusively by this account does not incur the $50 individual fee for the same person and period; any Order membership dues remain separate and payable under their own rules. Each person's identity and actions remain individually recorded and auditable.

Annual fees under this section become payable only once the corresponding accounts are actually available, authorized and secure. They are neither per-view charges nor a price for information retrieved from the registry. The Order cannot create or increase any additional fee. Consultations and communications expressly free or guaranteed by the Act remain so, including danger disclosures, their follow-up, and access by competent authorities, the RBQ, police, coroners and other statutory officials to the extent of their respective authorizations.

Published, objective rules govern billing, renewal, refunds and adjustments for authorization changes, without multiplying accounts or fees for a single person. Any other fee category, change in amounts or indexation specific to these fees requires amendment of this regulation made by the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act under the applicable statutory powers. The Order may not sell registry data or impede filings or reports whose receipt is guaranteed by the Act.

IV - ALLOCATION OF REVENUE, RESERVE AND SURPLUSES

Section 15 | ART_H67Y4DUK6ZYKAWBQ | Version 5

Registry fees are paid into the general fund and tracked, together with the Order’s surpluses and reserves, through auditable analytical accounts. This identification creates no separate fund, non-transferable envelope or financial restriction based on the origin of revenues. Shared-function expenditures are allocated on a reasonable, consistent and documented basis to support proportionality of regulatory fees.

Costs of the integrated regulatory scheme that may be considered in this justification include in particular:

1° legal establishment and administrative and operational organization of the Order, supported by documentation;

2° design, development, commissioning, operation, maintenance and renewal of the pre-registry and central registry;

3° professional inspection, practice oversight, the syndic, discipline and the roll, insofar as their costs are attributable to the integrated scheme;

4° cybersecurity, audit, document and data preservation, technological continuity and renewal of necessary infrastructure;

5° the Order’s other legally mandated public-protection functions, including professional liability insurance expenses paid under section 39 of the Act.

Unjustified expenses, those unrelated to the Order’s legal mission and private benefits remain excluded from tariff justification. Sustained fee surpluses trigger review of the fee schedule by the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act through the applicable legal process. Transitional and ordinary fees are tracked separately for analysis without ring-fencing or a second fee when a previously paid report is integrated.

Section 16 | ART_XTJAD3Z91L4NGD2Q | Version 4

The Order may establish a reasonable consolidated reserve within the general fund to ensure continuity of all its functions, registry security, professional obligations and approved technology commitments. The accounting origin of revenue does not earmark a reserve, subject to legally separated funds or assets.

The purposes, commitments and risks supporting the reserve are documented and its changes reported annually. Unless a duly substantiated exceptional commitment warrants otherwise, the free reserve should not exceed twelve months of the Order’s budgeted consolidated operating expenses. Review of the reserve does not displace justification of regulatory fees against the integrated scheme.

Section 17 | ART_RJU8F3BWD2BPWELV | Version 9

After year-end closing and approval of audited financial statements, the Order determines the general fund’s consolidated balance and net surpluses after debts, refunds, mandatory expenses, commitments and necessary reserves. Analytical records distinguish sources and costs for tariff justification without ring-fencing surplus amounts according to their source.

A net general-fund surplus may be paid to the Fondation de l’Ordre des praticiens en sécurité incendie designated in section 38 and identified under section 58 of the Act only if that Foundation is entitled to receive it and the payment is authorized by law and compatible with the Order’s obligations. Such a payment may not divert legally protected amounts or support unreasonable regulatory fees; the board and the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act shall undertake any fee review required by the Act. No amount owing to a client or creditor is a surplus.

Net interest on general trust accounts is remitted directly to the Foundation, once it can lawfully receive it, under section 40 of the Act and its implementing regulations; it is included neither in the single fund’s receipts nor in the calculation of its surpluses. Pending lawful remittance, interest is held separately under the applicable trust-account scheme. Each year the Order separately publishes single-fund surplus transfers and amounts remitted directly from trust interest with relevant supporting information.

Section 18 | ART_PB1D9PX1RRKML23C | Version 5

No revenue of the Order’s general fund may be distributed to members as profit, rebates, dividends, practice-volume discounts or other personal financial benefits. This does not bar legally authorized public-protection expenses, including payment for a group professional liability plan under section 39 of the Act. Any transfers to the Foundation remain subject to section 38 of the Act and section 17 of this Regulation.

This section does not prevent normal reimbursement of an expense incurred on behalf of the Order or payment of reasonable compensation for work actually performed in accordance with applicable governance rules.

V - INSURANCE AND FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

Section 19 | ART_PTCYRS6T60MM4TS4 | Version 3

Premiums, contributions, administration expenses and other eligible costs of the group professional liability plan may be paid in whole or in part from the general fund, regardless of the accounting source of revenues paid into that fund, under section 39 of the Act and its targeted derogation from section 85.2 of the Professional Code.

The board documents the plan’s full cost, the portion paid by the Order and, where applicable, the portion apportioned among members or classes under the Professional Code. Amounts charged directly to members are shown separately from annual base dues. Assets and reserves of any legally separate insurance fund remain protected by applicable law and do not become general assets of the Order.

Section 20 | ART_GGQSHTNFXGBAASFM | Version 10

The Order’s annual report presents the consolidated general-fund statement, analytically breaking down professional dues, insurance contributions, transitional fees, ordinary filing fees, legally available access charges and other revenues. Expenses are classified by function, including the roll, inspection, syndic, discipline, pre-registry, registry, administration and insurance. Legally protected resources and commitments, provisions, reimbursements and surpluses are identified without treating registry fees as a separate treasury.

For registry fees, the report provides the direct and shared costs of the integrated regulatory scheme and the allocation method, volumes of billable reports and documents, refunds, consolidated reserves, variances and steps taken to maintain tariff proportionality. Persistent discrepancies are referred to the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act, the only authority empowered to revise the fee. Any permitted Foundation payments and net income paid directly from general trust accounts are separately reported, without including the latter in general-fund revenue.

The annual statement distinguishes inactive and activated regions and genuinely available access services without counting the same report twice.

Section 21 | ART_SUEPDMGC0EM4CCE8 | Version 2

During the transitional period, the responsible professional or legally authorized employer submits a secure written monthly administrative declaration identifying the person, period, report categories and count, references preventing duplicates, amounts invoiced, received and remitted, and adjustments. The pre-registry reconciles declarations, fees and receipts without requiring complete report PDFs or fictitious EDF_ identifiers.

The procedure governs omitted declarations, corrections, cancellations, refunds and verification under confidentiality safeguards.

Section 22 | ART_97FM8TYKEQD518SM | Version 3

The annual report publishes the unit rate applicable to each eligible filing and, during the transition, each report, for each year, the first regional documentary activation date, the Québec all-items CPI for the two relevant July months, the indexation formula, rounding and effective date. It distinguishes automatic indexation under this regulation made by the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act from any legislative or regulatory change creating a new fee; it publishes the costs of the integrated regulatory scheme and the methods of allocation used to establish proportionality without source-based earmarking.

The annual accounting distinguishes the number of eligible professional reports and other documents charged, broken down by category from free disclosures, reports requiring verification, formal notices, supplements and administrative closures. No free disclosure volume may be counted as a chargeable professional filing. Processing costs for those communications are eligible regime expenses only to the extent permitted by law, without creating a separate reporting fee.

The report separately identifies original filings, free corrections, new chargeable professional revisions and periodic reviews resulting in a new filing. It publishes the method used to track regulatory due dates without treating mere corrections as renewals of validity. No disclosure charge may be included in fee revenue.

Section 23 | ART_0061YR4Z3ALUFLV4 | Version 3

A member registered in the “retired member” category pays $0 in base annual Order dues. This exemption is accounted for within the Order’s general budget without creating a separate fund or reserve. It does not remove the contribution to the Office des professions under section 196.2 of the Professional Code or any other mandatory statutory levy unless expressly exempted by law.

Section 24 | ART_JFD9L2MJUS8CTP98 | Version 1

Pursuant to section 75 of the Act, sections 6, 21 of this regulation are repealed upon official closure of the pre-registry.

The repeal has no retroactive effect and does not erase any file, vested right, payment or earlier act lawfully established.