Whitehorse city council was presented with a bylaw writing off approximately $73,000 of money the city is owed that has been deemed uncollectible.
The money in question is $18,250 in parking fines issued to non-Yukon vehicles from 2022 and $54,620 in uncollectible bylaw fines dating back to the 2015 fiscal year.
Svetlana Erickson, the city’s financial services manager, explained that the city tried to collect the bylaw fines and a collection agency works on collecting for known traffic violations.
Councillors Dan Boyd and Kirk Cameron were in favour of keeping the pressure on and not making it easy for people to walk away without paying. Erickson said the city doesn’t have an existing process for collecting tickets associated with vehicles registered outside the Yukon.
Boyd suggested making the list of people or groups owing bylaw fines public, the same way the city publishes its tax lien list.
Council heard that the city has about a 45 per cent collection rate for parking fines issued to vehicles registered outside the Yukon. They also heard that a data-sharing agreement with other jurisdictions would likely be expensive when compared to the money that could be written off if the bylaw is approved.
Contact Jim Elliot at jim.elliot@yukon-news.com