The Ontario Securities Commission today published for comment proposed changes to its fee schedules that incorporate overall reductions of 11.0% for market participants.

The OSC says these reductions are the result of modifications to fees to reflect costs of providing services and the return of a $35.9 million surplus over a three-year period.

The proposed changes are in addition to the rebate to market participants of nearly $15 million made last March, which represented a portion of the regulatory costs they had paid during the last two years.

“The proposed fees are the result of rigorous calculations and research, well informed by the experience we have gained since we adopted a new fee structure in 2003,” said Charlie Macfarlane, executive director of the OSC, in a release.

“Like many other organizations in the financial services industry, our costs have risen, but as we were conservative in our forecasts in earlier years, we are able to apply an accumulated surplus to actually reduce fees overall in the next cycle. The adjustments we propose are designed to reduce or eliminate any surplus generated as we prepare for our second three-year cycle under the new fee model.”

The proposals address the fee concerns of smaller market participants. For example, the OSC is proposing an additional fee tier at lower revenue range to reduce fees for smaller registrants.

“As a result of the modifications, participation fees for 81% of registrants, those with annual revenues below $3 million, will decrease by between 10% to 38%. This is significant since participation fees make up the greater portion of fees paid by registrants,” Macfarlane said. “As well, all issuers will see reductions in their participation fees.”

The proposed changes are included in Rule 13-502 Fees and Rule 13-503 (Commodity Futures Act) Fees, available on the OSC’s Web site.

Comments on the proposals are requested by November 10.