OMVIC fines Parry Sound Chevrolet $3,000 and Lakehead Motors $3,250: a GM Dealer Fee, a fuel charge, an admin fee and the OMVIC fee, all outside the advertised price

On August 26, 2026, one Reviewing Panel of OMVIC’s Discipline Tribunal, Public Member Aviva Harari with Registrant Members Jon Lemaire and Joe Malfara, signed two all-in pricing orders. It fined Parry Sound Chevrolet Buick GMC Ltd. $3,000 and its Person in Charge, William Campbell, $250, and it fined The Lakehead Motors Limited $3,250. Between them, the two worksheets at issue carried four charges above an advertised price, each under a different name: a “GM Dealer Fee”, a “Fuel Charge”, an “Admin fee” and an “OMVIC fee”. Both decisions reach the same result under s. 36(7) of O. Reg. 333/08, which makes an advertised price the total of what the buyer pays for the vehicle and all other charges related to the trade, “including, if any, charges for freight, charges for inspection before delivery of the vehicle, fees, levies and taxes.”

Parry Sound Chevrolet: a Dealer Fee said aloud, a GM Dealer Fee on paper

On or before October 24, 2025, the dealer advertised a 2019 Chevrolet Cruze LT, stock number 15031, at $19,999 plus taxes and fees. On or about October 24, an OMVIC representative posing as a member of the public asked about it. A salesperson discussed the price and said aloud that an additional “Dealer Fee” would apply. The worksheet prepared for the representative named the charges on paper: a “GM Dealer Fee” of $699 and a “Fuel Charge” of $50, $749 above the advertised price (agreed facts, paras [4] to [7]).

The decision does not say what the $699 paid for or who set it. It records the charge only under the two names the salesperson and the worksheet gave it. The advertisement said “plus taxes and fees”, and the agreed facts still treat the $749 as added to the advertised price, which was therefore not all-inclusive, contrary to s. 36(7) and ss. 4(2) and 9(3) of the Code of Ethics (para [8]). The same wording was on the ad in the site’s Chenier Motors case, where the agreed facts noted the fees were not particularized.

Campbell has been registered as a salesperson since around August 1982, is the dealer’s General Manager and was its Person in Charge at all material times. He was found in breach of s. 6(2) and s. 9(3) for failing to ensure the dealer complied. The dealer has been registered since around May 2019.

The order:

• the dealer pays $3,000 within 90 days;
• Campbell pays $250 within 90 days;
• Campbell passes the MVDA Key Elements Course with at least 80 per cent within 90 days;
• the dealer offers to fund Key Elements for every current and future salesperson it employs.

The reasons say the panel considered “the previous discipline history of the Dealer and registrant,” and name it again beside the parties’ acceptance of responsibility. The decision does not describe that history, and the agreed facts it reproduces contain no paragraph on it. Allegations in two paragraphs of the Notice of Referral dated February 24, 2026 were withdrawn.

Lakehead Motors: an Admin fee and an OMVIC fee, called mandatory

On or before July 16, 2025, The Lakehead Motors Limited advertised a 2022 Jeep Compass 4x4 Limited, stock number 2215961, at $32,998 plus taxes and licensing. On or about July 16, an OMVIC representative, called the Investigator in the agreed facts, made a mystery-shop inquiry. A salesperson handed over a worksheet showing the $32,998 plus an “Admin fee” of $499 and an “OMVIC fee” of $12.50, and told the Investigator the fees, $511.50 in all, were mandatory (paras [5] to [8]). The parties agreed that the advertised price was “not all-inclusive of all required fees,” contrary to s. 36(7) and Code ss. 4(2) and 9(3) (para [9]).

The dealer has been registered since around February 1983. On or about September 14, 2016, a representative of the Registrar sent it a formal warning letter “reminding the registrants to comply with their all-in price advertising obligations pursuant to s. 36(7) of O. Reg. 333/08 and the Code of Ethics” (para [4]). The mystery shop came eight years and ten months later.

Rocco Cristoforo has been registered as a salesperson since around February 1996 and has been the dealer’s General Sales Manager at all material times. The agreed facts describe him as currently the designated Person in Charge. He was found in breach of Code ss. 6(2) and 9(3) for failing to ensure the dealer complied, and must pass the MVDA Key Elements Course with at least 80 per cent within 90 days. He was not fined. The dealer pays $3,250 within 90 days and must offer to fund Key Elements for every current and future salesperson. Allegations in six paragraphs of the Notice of Referral dated October 28, 2025 were withdrawn, and the agreed facts say the rest were set out or revised.

What the two orders share, and where they differ

Both went in writing under Rule 1.07 of the Rules of Practice, on agreed facts, a jointly proposed disposition and a waiver of an oral hearing. Both sets of reasons find the penalty within a reasonable range and not “so unhinged from the circumstances of the offence and the offender,” with a footnote to Bradley v. Ontario College of Teachers and R. v. Anthony-Cook.

The fines run the other way from the fee totals. Parry Sound Chevrolet’s worksheet added $749 and the dealer was fined $3,000, with a $250 fine on its Person in Charge. Lakehead’s added $511.50, and the dealer was fined $3,250 with no fine on its General Sales Manager. Neither decision refers to the other, and neither ties its fine to the amount of the fees.

Each of the four labels, GM Dealer Fee, Fuel Charge, Admin fee and OMVIC fee, ended in the same finding under s. 36(7). The $599 Dealer fee at Auto Line Toyota in April did too, and the site’s guide on what a dealer can add to the advertised price sets out the few charges that can stay outside it.