Information about your fees

Our authority to set fees and our mandate to recover costs

The Motor Dealer Act gives us the legal authority to set fees to fund our operations. The government has tasked us with regulating and licensing the motor dealer industry, and we have the authority to set licensing fees and other charges to cover the costs of doing so. Before we increase fees, we are required to consult with you and give you 30 days’ notice prior to changing or introducing fee changes. There were no fee increases in the 2024-2025 Fiscal Year.

What is happening?

We are in the process of setting your licensing fees for 2025/2026. Following a review of our costs and forecasted revenues, we are proposing to change some of our fees. To sustain and improve the oversight of the motor dealer industry and recover costs, we are giving you the opportunity to provide feedback on the following proposed 5% fee increases for all categories and other fee changes.

The proposed 5% fee increases for all categories are outlined in the attached fee schedule: Appendix 1.

Why are fees changing?

Your licensing fees pay for the direct costs of regulating the motor dealer industry, such as licensing, compliance inspections, complaint handling, education, and enforcement activities, as well as indirect costs like IT, finance and accounting, and maintaining our offices. Every year these costs increase. In some cases, cost increases are consistent with inflation, in other cases increases are based on specific and unique factors related to our industry (for example, changes to the laws that result in new regulatory requirements).

Our costs for regulating the industry have increased significantly due to increases in both the number and complexity of consumer and licensee inquiries. Further, and like many businesses, we are experiencing significant increases in labor costs, property taxes, and other expenses over recent years. The VSA is also commencing work to increase accessibility to its services as required of all public bodies by the new Accessible British Columbia Act. Combined with inflation and rising financial pressures, these challenges are outpacing our efforts to manage costs effectively. These items are prompting us to propose a 5% fee increase for all categories the 2025/2026 fiscal year to address these inflationary impacts.

How are fees determined?

We operate on a cost recovery basis. We receive no funding from the province of British Columbia. This means that the costs to license and regulate industry and provide trade practice regulation are primarily covered by licensing fees. In setting these fees, we allocate costs using several factors to determine overall costs for us to operate. The factors that determine costs are broken down by the functions of our organization. Once these costs are determined, fees are developed so that projected revenues closely match our costs to regulate. We have used fact-based assumptions from our previous fee review and economic forecasting to allocate costs.

What your fees pay for: