It's a sure sign of spring. Just as we are dusting off our camping gear, the province is increasing user fees for parks, fishing, hunting, and who knows what's next. The government offers tax relief and tax reform down the road, but continues to hike taxes and fees today.

There's nothing wrong with user fees that legitimately reflect the cost of providing a service. But many people suspect that user fee hikes are a disguised form of taxation, supporting government bureaucracy and its appetite for spending rather than reflecting the cost of any service.

Is this happening in Saskatchewan Are our user fees legitimate, or just taxes by another name We tried to find that out, and discovered that our Finance Department has no clue of how much revenue user fees generate, or whether the fees reflect the cost of delivering services. A Freedom of Information request last December generated the response: "The Department of Finance does not maintain a comprehensive or detailed list of all fees and charges as each department has its own unique set of fees and charges for which it is responsible."

In response to this, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has called for a moratorium on all fee increases by all provincial departments and agencies until a comprehensive review can be completed by a committee of MLAs and knowledgeable private sector representatives.

A few more dollars to camp in a park may not seem like a big deal, but it really adds up. A guess would be that Saskatchewan collects about $400 million each year in user fees, based on the fact that Alberta with its greater population collects about $1.2 billion. But guesses aren't good enough. We need the government to provide a full account of user fees and the revenue they generate before any fee hikes can be considered.

This is not just a taxpayer protection issue. The government has a legal obligation to make sure user fees are fair. A Supreme Court decision early last year that ruled that Ontario's probate fees were illegal since the money collected was considerably higher than the direct cost of the service provided. The court ordered the Ontario government to either reduce the revenue collected or put the fee into law, like a tax. Without a proper accounting of user fees, the Saskatchewan government is vulnerable to similar charges.

Saskatchewan should do what Alberta recently did. Last April the Alberta government froze user fees and conducted a comprehensive review of hundreds of user fees and charges, for everything from high school transcripts to drivers licenses, that bring in about $1.2 billion a year. In last month's budget the Alberta government announced that it would cut user fees by $60 million.

We need the Saskatchewan government to be similarly accountable for the revenue it rakes in. That accountability must include a full review of user fees, with the participation of private sector people who think in terms of "serving the customers" as opposed to "gouging the taxpayers".