The cost of a pardon would triple to $150 under a proposal from the federal parole board.

Shelley Trevethan, executive director general of the Parole Board of Canada, told a Senate committee recently the move is necessary to help cover costs.

She says inflation, processing costs and the volume of pardon applications have increased significantly since the mid-1990s when the current fee was set.

The number of pardon applications the board receives rose to more than 36,000 in 2008-09 from an historical average of about 20,000 a year.

Trevethan says the board has had to divert funds from another area to address chronic shortfalls in the pardons program.

Taxpayers subsidizing pardon program

In the 1990s, a user fee of $50 was introduced to partially recover the cost of processing a pardon application.

The board receives $35 of this amount, while the RCMP gets $15.

It is not reasonable to expect tax dollars to subsidize pardons, said Michael Patton, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.

"Canadians expect those seeking pardons to pay the administrative costs of processing their requests," he said Thursday.

"The fact is that the program is just not sustainable at the current cost."

Former hockey coach Graham James was pardoned for sex crimes in 2007, a fact that did not become public knowledge until it was revealed by The Canadian Press last April.

The news prompted the government to swiftly increase waiting periods before some convicts can apply for pardons. Further restrictions, including a change that would deny sex offenders against children the right to apply for a pardon, are currently being examined by a parliamentary committee.