WHEREAS the Community Charter under section 2581 presently allows municipalities to recover special fees as property taxes when the fees are related to work done or services provided to land or improvements or when the fees are related to fire and security alarm systems; AND WHEREAS there are significant costs associated with collecting outstanding municipal fines, such as those related to noise, parking and nuisance infractions, and in many cases the collection of these unpaid fines through either a collection agency or small claims court proves unsuccessful in part due to an overloaded court system: Therefore be it resolved that the provincial government allow municipalities through legislation to collect unpaid municipal bylaw fines through property taxes where the fines are property related.
Ministry of Community, Sport Cultural Development Property taxes are exactly what their name implies: taxes on the value of a property. As such, unpaid taxes represent a lien against a property. If left unpaid, the property in question can go to tax sale. Certain types of fees are structurally similar to property taxes because they relate to the delivery of services directly to a specific property e.g. a water utility fee to a home. Thus, s.2581 of the Community Charter, allows such unpaid fees to be included as part of property taxes in arears, which represent a lien on a property, and if left unpaid, can go to tax sale. Tickets for noise, parking, and nuisance violations are not fees at all; theyre fines with little or no relationship to any municipal service to a specific property. Thus, there is no logical basis for assigning them as a lien against a property, which would be eligible for potential tax sale. The confiscatory authority of government is an extremely significant power, and therefore must be used in a limited and restrained manner and under very strict rules. Going to tax sale on someones home because of unpaid parking ticket would be an excessive exercise of government power. There are other reasonable remedies available to government for collecting on ticketing violations. Thus, the Province is not prepared to examine any expansion of section 2581 of the Community Charter to include fine violations as part of taxes in arrears.