Are Thousands Of Old Parking Tickets Collectable? If So How Will The City Proceed?
Are thousands of unpaid parking fines totalling close to $1 million owed to the City of Moose Jaw collectable? And if they are collectable how will the City go about doing it?
They are questions MJ Independent put to City Manager Jim Puffalt about the sometimes over a decade old as a unpaid tickets. It is a mountain of debt the City sees as a a means to fund a major re-organization at City Hall.
City Manager Puffalt previously said the move would allow the collection of “a crazy amount” close to $1 million worth of unpaid parking tickets. Some of the outstanding parking fines go back to June 2011.
According to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request from the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) by MJ Independent the MJPS told the City of Moose Jaw they have washed their hands over the issue and would no longer be involved in helping to collect outstanding parking tickets.
Other Cities Problems Collecting Unpaid Fines
Moose Jaw is not the only Saskatchewan community facing massive amounts of unpaid parking fines.
In July 2021 the City of Saskatoon told CTV News that they were owed $8 million in outstanding parking fines and were using booting or impounding vehicles to collect the fines.
Regina in March 2021 had five drivers owing over $20,000 with the worst offender owing $68,810.
In 2005 the Province allowed cities to register liens against parking offender’s vehicle meaning the vehicle could not be sold without the lien first being paid.
According to a lawyer MJ Independent spoke to the City may not be able to collect outstanding parking fines which went through Bylaw Court and notices issued over two years ago due to outstanding Saskatchewan law.
For the first time the words Booting and Towing came up as potential ways to help collect close to $1 million owed to the City for unpaid parking fines - MJ Independent photo
MJ Independent is not releasing the lawyer’s name as he is being employed on a separate unrelated matter.
Depending on the type of debt for many debts in Saskatchewan , the creditor can sue you anytime up to two years after the last time you acknowledged the debt. You acknowledge a debt by making a payment or otherwise expressing in writing that the debt exists.
At the present time the City does not have a bylaw which includes the cost of collecting an unpaid parking ticket. Neither does the City have a bylaw allowing interest to accumulate.
The debt for unpaid parking tickets may still end up on an individual’s credit report but the debt may be disputed especially if the traffic fines are a decade old.
At the present time the Province prevents individuals from re-newing their driver's license without the re-payment of outstanding Provincial fines.
The Province presently does not collect fines, like parking tickets, owed to municipalities. There is no legal mechanism for the Province to collect the fines on the City of Moose Jaw’s behalf.
Parking tickets cannot be assigned to property taxes or utilities under present legislation.
Parking tickets are not handled by the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan, the Moose Jaw Police Service, books court times at the Provincial Court House but they operate independently from the Provincial Court.
City Manager Mentions Booting Or Towing Offenders’ Cars
In previous questions about the difficulty or seeming inability Puffalt said he had not spoken to the City Solicitor about the potential of a two year deadline but would do so when he had the opportunity. Now that the City has hired a new solicitor MJ Independent asked him about it.
In questions following the April 25th Council meeting Puffalt admitted he had not specifically asked the new City Solicitor about the two year threshold to collect outstanding parking fines.
“That is something the new City Solicitor is looking at the issue of outstanding parking tickets. Can we boot people, can we tow people, these are some of the things the City is looking at,” Puffalt said about collecting the close to $1 million in outstanding parking fines.
“I don’t know that is one thing the City Solicitor is looking at,” Puffalt said when asked about the two year court limit.
“About the two years I don’t know if I have asked him specifically but I can certainly check with him.”