Guelph’s mayor-elect says he’s already found one way the city can raise its revenue without raising its tax rates.
More than $5 million is owed to the city in the form of unpaid fines, Cam Guthrie says, and it’s time to collect.
“I would rather do that than try to tax more,” he says.
“We would love the money (and they) owe it anyway, so let’s get going.”
The fines cover parking tickets, noise bylaw infractions and all other manners of civic wrongdoing that result in financial penalties.
Guthrie estimates that municipalities across Ontario are owed $1 billion by tardy fine recipients.
Some municipalities use collection agencies – at a cost to the people being tracked down – or add outstanding fines to their tax rolls, but neither of those practices are currently in use in Guelph.
Guthrie describes the city’s current collections practice as a “tap on the shoulder.”
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario has lobbied for greater powers to be given to municipalities to track down people they’ve fined and convince them to pay.
Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge are owed a combined $1.5 million or so in unpaid parking fines – more than half of them in Waterloo.
In those cities, fines related to other matters are collected by the Region of Waterloo.
