Executive Forum 2001
Montreux, Switzerland
26-29 September 2001

Interviews

Fee charging in export promotion bodies: No one size fits all Brian Oak, Director, Strategic Planning, Trade Commissioner Service, and Coordinator, Team Canada, Inc.

Question: Canada considered whether to make Team Canada a private sector body, a public-private organization, or public sector unit before choosing to make it wholly public sector. Why did it take that decision?

Oak: It is true that when we were re-engineering our Trade Commissioner Service we considered these options including special operating agencies as we call them, Crown corporations or indeed creating a private sector firm. I think there were two considerations that finally determined that we would remain as we are within the government structure. The first one had to do with cost. Certainly to establish any new kind of entity, particularly if you want to house it in a special location, is an expensive proposition. At that time, the government felt that industry couldn’t support this kind of expenditure.

Probably the more important reason was that our clients, the Canadian exporters, whom we surveyed about this, told us after their deliberation that they would prefer the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service to remain a government organization.

Q: STEP, the Saskatchewan export promotion organization, is private and charges a membership fee. It seems to be very successful. Why haven’t other Canadian provinces adopted the same model?

Saskatchewan is one of our smaller provinces, so far as population base is concerned and exporter numbers. Certainly when you are dealing with a membership of some 300 companies or thereabouts you can afford to control the situation and provide high-quality service at a fee to your defined membership. In many of our other provinces – certainly Ontario, Quebec, British Colombia, Alberta (our big provinces) – the numbers of exporter companies are much much larger. Therefore, at that point, it probably becomes an administrative burden. I can’t speak for these provinces but I am sure that factored into their decision-making.

I might also add that there are other ways of charging service fees. The Federal Government does that when it comes to services that aren’t core to the ones we provide our companies. So secondary services we provide to any Canadian exporter can have service fees attached. There are various ways for organizing fees for services but administrative efficiencies are a key consideration.

Oak: The approach we have taken is that we have standardized the kind of service we provide free of charge to our export-rated clients. The way around the fee question can be: you provide services free but everything else is charged, or if the company is in fact not export-ready, you tell them clearly to go somewhere else to get their service, which will also cost them money. There are various ways of doing it. It depends on your particular jurisdiction. No one size fits all.