There’s a very expensive elephant in the room and it’s been ignored for too long.
The Ontario Association Police Board has released a report which revealed that more than $1 billion were missing in unpaid fines from traffic tickets and provincial offences in Ontario.
The Ontario government needs to step up to the plate and take an active role in tackling this issue.
Fixing the inefficiencies of the system may be time-consuming, cumbersome, and bureaucratic, but there’s no way around it.
The Liberals need to adopt a strategy to collect the unpaid fines because they will need all the money they can get to keep Ontario’s economy running.
Seventy per cent of the fines were issued for automobile insurance and traffic violations.
Other fines included violating liquor laws and trespassing.
It is logical if most of the unpaid fines came from foreigners and tourists where it would be unrealistic to collect money.
But the fact is 91 per cent of the fines were ticketed to Ontarians.
So while the government can’t collect every unpaid fine, they can still collect enough to make a difference to the economy.
If the government takes the initiative to collect the fines, the money will trickle back to municipalities, and that can help the local economy in many ways.
For example, Ottawa alone had more than $10 million in unpaid fines. Imagine the many ways the money can help the local economy.
The association released the report on Nov. 9 – one week after Dwight Duncan, Ontario’s finance minister, reported that Ontario’s economy shrank in the second quarter of 2011.
Furthermore, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said the province is dealing with an economy that is expected to have a slow economic growth in the next five to six years.
In the economic downturn that Ontario is facing, the province can’t afford to lose money like this.
In the report, the association president, Alok Mukherjee, said the problem took off in 1997 after provinces transferred their duties to municipalities, who weren’t prepared to deal with the situation.
The ill-preparedness can be seen in the numbers.
In 1990 alone, there were $11 million in unpaid fines, compared with 2009 when there was $100 million worth of unpaid fines in one year.
The increasing numbers show the lack of ability to manage a growing problem.
Why didn’t anyone intervene? How did the provincial government let this go on for so long?
The Liberal government, which has been in control for eight years, overlooked this issue and failed to do something about it.
The association outlined several problems that led to the missing money.
The biggest problem was one of communication and coordination between municipal and provincial databases over unpaid fines after the transfer.
In its 27-page report, the association has provided a comprehensive list of solutions to overcome the problems with the right tools.
The association suggested tougher penalties, better information technology to improve communication between the provincial and the municipalities, and more accountability.
The association said the municipalities are overwhelmed and need assistance from other levels of government.
This is their cry for McGuinty to intervene. And if he does, it would help Ontario’s economy and his credibility as a leader.