The City of Timmins has written off nearly $103,000 in unpaid Provincial Offences Act (POA) fines.
At the June 15 meeting, Timmins council unanimously approved writing off $102,924.39 in "uncollectible" POA fines. It includes 698 files that are more than 10 years in default, according to the report.
“We don’t book these POA fines until we actually collect the fines so there’s no financial hit to our books,” said CAO Dave Landers.
Of the amount written off, 55.6 per cent ($68,295) are City of Timmins Noise Bylaw fines, 39.8 per cent ($31,306) are Liquor License Act fines, and 4.6 per cent ($3,321) are Trespass to Property Act fines.
While the city uses a collection agency, the staff report says it's difficult to collect the fines indicated due to people charged "not maintaining a fixed address".
"We do not look to write-off Provincial Offences fines that are attached to a driver's license or plate number as these types of fines can be collected," reads the report.
Mayor George Pirie said the Northern Ontario Large Urban Mayors (NOLUM) has talked about POAs.
He said the group is asking the province for "more teeth" in the legislation to allow municipalities to increase the opportunity of collecting the files.
