Municipal governments rely on user fees to fund services, yet fee design is rarely straightforward. This research examines the legal, equity, and fiscal dimensions of user fee design and implementation in Canadian municipalities — from case law constraints and western Canadian practice to the broader question of who pays for city services and why.
User fees are an attractive tool for municipal finance — they connect service costs to service users and can reduce reliance on property taxes. But their design is constrained by Canadian case law, their distributional effects can be regressive, and their implementation varies widely across jurisdictions. Getting fee design right requires understanding the legal limits of what municipalities can charge, who bears the burden, and how fees interact with the broader fiscal structure of the city.
This research program spans over a decade of work on municipal user fees in Canada — from a comprehensive design and implementation guide published by the Canadian Tax Foundation, to edited volumes bringing together national expertise on municipal taxation and finance, to analysis of how western Canadian municipalities have used fees in practice. It also includes applied engagement through the City of Calgary Financial Task Force, translating research into policy-relevant recommendations for one of Canada's largest cities.
We work with governments and civil society organizations across Canada on evidence-based policy design and evaluation.