FAQ

The new tax is implemented since December 1st, 2009. If your telephone bill covered a period that overlap the months of December 2009 and January 2010, you has to pay the tax for these two months...

The 911 emergency centres receive 911 calls from individuals in distress, determine the nature of the emergency and direct the calls to the appropriate emergency services such as the police, firefighters and ambulance services. The Civil Protection Act assigns to all the municipalities responsibility for ensuring that a 911 emergency centre serves their territory. The municipalities are responsible for funding 911 emergency centres. The municipal tax for 911 is intended to enable them to fulfil this responsibility.

A municipal tariff of 47¢ per month, which appeared on the invoices of telephone service clients,  funded 911 emergency centres serving the municipalities until November 30, 2009. However, not all telephone service providers collected this tariff but only those that had concluded agreements for this purpose with the municipalities. Most cellular telephone service providers did not conclude such agreements, which means that only some telephone service clients (roughly 4.4 million out of a total of 8 million) were contributing to funding the 911 emergency centres. This raised a question of fairness. It also posed a problem of under-funding for 911 emergency centres because certain individuals replaced their landline telephone with other telephony modes.

Under the Entente 2007-2013 sur un partenariat fiscal et financier concluded in the spring of 2006 with municipal associations and the Ville de Montréal, the government undertook to ensure that all telephone service clients contribute from now on to the funding of 911 emergency centres. For this reason, starting December 1, 2009, a municipal tax that all telephone service providers, including wireless telephone service and Internet telephony providers, must collect from their clients is funding 911 emergency centres.

In the wake of the commitment made in an agreement concluded in 2006 with representatives of the municipalities to ensure that all telephone service clients contribute from now on to funding 911 emergency centres, the government decided, in consultation with representatives of the municipalities, 911 emergency centres and telephone service providers, to replace the municipal tariff with a municipal tax.

In June 2008 and June 2009, the National Assembly adopted legislative provisions to implement this municipal tax. In the summer and fall of 2009, the municipalities then adopted by-laws stipulating the application of this tax. A government regulation, in force since June 2009, aimed, in particular, at ensuring that the amount of the tax and tax base are the same for all Québec municipalities, structures these municipal by-laws. The new tax applies since December 1st , 2009.

All telephone service clients, regardless of the type of service (landline or wireless telephony, including Internet telephony and services paid for by means of prepaid airtime cards) are covered by the tax, provided that this service enables the clients to reach directly or indirectly a 911 emergency centre. This applies to a service offered in the territory of a local municipality, including a territory in respect of which a regional county municipality (RCM) assumes the responsibilities for a local municipality.

Individuals served by more than one type of telephony service are likely to benefit more extensively from the 911 emergency service because they have easier access to it. Consequently, it is normal for them to pay more. Moreover, the funds collected through the new tax make it possible to enhance the service offered to wireless telephony users. The obligation for clients to pay the tax for each telephone service that they use basically reflects the same principle as the one that applies to motor vehicle registration fees: two automobiles means two licence plates.

The use of the 911 service during an emergency is free of charge. Telephone service clients must pay monthly the municipal tax for 911 to ensure the availability of the service provided by 911 emergency centres.

When a client who has purchased a prepaid airtime card decides to activate it, the telephone service provider must then create in respect of the telephone number concerned a virtual account for an amount equivalent to the value of the prepaid card. The provider must collect the tax from this amount when it supplies the service for the first time in a given month. In practice, this means that the amount of the tax is deducted monthly from the amount available to make calls. To obtain additional information, clients should contact their provider.

For any telephone service that allows the user to dial 911, the tax is 40¢ per month per telephone number or, in the case of a multiline telephone service other than a Centrex service, per outgoing access line. This is a minimal amount bearing in mind that it provides access to the important service that 911 emergency centres offer. Furthermore, this amount is less than the municipal tariff of 47¢ per month that it replaces in the case of the clients of providers who collected this charge from their clients.

There are three explanations for the netreduction in the monthly amount payable:


- since all of the clients of a telephone service must pay the new tax, the number of clients contributing to the funding of 911 emergency centres  rise from 4.4 million to over 8 million. The monthly amount must, therefore, decrease accordingly;


- the monthly rate of 47¢ was set in 1995 and has never been increased since then. The amount of the new tax takes into consideration inflation since 1995 and average indexation for the period 2009-2013;


- the monthly amount of the new tax takes into account the cost of enhancing the services stemming from the implementation by 911 emergency centres of more stringent quality standards in the wake of the coming into force of the Regulation respecting standards, specifications and quality criteria applicable to 9-1-1 emergency centres and to certain secondary emergency call centres.

The municipal tax for 911 is collected since December 1, 2009.

Telephone service providers must, in their capacity as mandataries of the municipalities, collect the tax from their clients and remit it to Revenu Québec, which in turn remits it to the Agence municipale de financement et de développement des centres d’urgence 911 du Québec. This agency, headed by representatives of the municipalities, apportions the tax among the municipalities to fund the 911 emergency centres serving their territory.

The municipal taxfor 911 will generate an anticipated $40 million in annual revenue during its first year of application, compared with roughly $25 million for the municipal tariff that it is replacing. Annual revenues will subsequently increase at the samepace as growth in the number of customers.

Once the telephone service providers, Revenu Québec and the Agence municipale de financement et de développement des centres d'urgence 9-1-1 du Québec have deducted their administrative costs, the local municipalities will receive some $34.5 million (roughly 86% of the total amount collected) to fund 911 emergency centres, i.e.$13.5 million more than is now the case. The additional funds will allow the enhancement of services.

Telephone service providers that previously collected from their customers the 47¢ monthly municipal tariff per line could keep 6¢ (12.8%) deducted from the tariff to cover their administrative costs. In the case of the municipal tax for 911, the monthly tax is 40¢ per telephone number or outgoing access line and the amount retained by the providers is 4¢, i.e. 10% of the monthly tax. The reduction stems from the providers’ reduced obligations, in particular because they no longer have to provide information on the source of the amounts collected by municipal territory.

Revenu Québec is responsible for administering Québec’s tax legislation. Under this mandate, it will ensure that all telephone service providers indeed fulfil their obligation to collect from their clients the municipal tax for 911 and will identify new providers that enter the market. Moreover, information on a telephone service’s clients is confidential, particularly against a backdrop of keen competition that prevails in the telecommunications industry. Revenu Québec’s management of the collection and recovery of the tax from providers guarantees confidentiality for telephony enterprises.

From now on, the clients of all telephone services must pay the new tax, including wireless telephony clients. In the case of wireless telephony, contrary to landline telephony, it is very hard to link the use of a telephone to the territory of one municipality in particular. For this reason, it is preferable to remit proceeds from the tax to a single agency, the Agence municipale de financement et de développement des centres d’urgence 911 du Québec, which will be responsible for apportioning the funds among the municipalities according to the rules that the municipal representatives who head the agency deem to be the fairest. The Agence cannot retain more than 3% of the proceeds of the tax that Revenu Québec remits to it to cover its administrative costs.

The goods and services tax (GST) and the Québec sales tax (QST) apply to the amount that the provider demands of the clients in respect of the telephone service provided. The municipal tax for 911 is included in this amount and is thus subject to the GST and the QST.

In five other provinces, a fee or monthly tariff collected from the clients of a telephone service funds 911 emergency services: New Brunswick (53¢), Prince Edward Island (50¢), Nova Scotia (43¢), Alberta (44¢) and Saskatchewan (38¢). In all of these provinces, the fee or tariff applies both to wireless and landline telephony, except in Alberta where it applies solely to landline telephony.

The 40¢ per month municipal tax levied on all clients of a telephone service replaced, since December 1, 2009, the 47¢ municipal tariff collected by telephone service providers that concluded an agreement for this purpose with the municipalities. Only this amount fund 911 emergency centres.

Any other amount indicated on a client’s invoice about 911 service refers to costs incurred by the provider to offer the service or to other purposes. Clients should contact their providers if they have questions in this respect.

All clients of a telephone service that enables them to dial 911 are subject to the municipal tax for 911. Telephone service providers must, at least once a year, notify each of the clients that they are collecting this tax and the amount of the tax but are not obliged to make separate mention of it on the invoice.

The amount of the municipal tax for 911 has been set bearing in mind the anticipated cost of applying more stringent quality standards (response time, continuity of service, number of telephone operators, staff training, equipment, building safety, and so on) that will apply to the 911 emergency centres when the Regulation respecting standards, specifications and quality criteria applicable to 9-1-1emergency centres and to certain secondary emergency call centres will come into force.

In June 2008, the Civil Protection Act was amended in order to oblige the municipalities to ensure that their territories are served by a 911 emergency centre and to empower the government to adopt a regulation imposing service quality standards on 911 emergency centres. Under the Act, the emergency centres will be subject to a periodic accreditation procedure aimed at ensuring compliance with these standards. The ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec will be responsible for defining service standards and monitoring their application.

For the time being, the service available to a wireless telephony user is slower than for the user of wire telephony, since the telephone operator must question the caller to determine his exact location. However, in the very near future, wireless telephone service providers will be obliged to send information on the caller’s geographic location, in particular by means of technologies such as GPS, which will accelerate the service. The new tax will afford 911 emergency centres the resources necessary to enable them to adapt to this new technology.