Item - 2021.GL25.4

The General Government and Licensing Committee recommends that:

1. City Council approve the write-off of Provincial Offences Act Fines Deemed Uncollectable above $500,000, as identified in Attachment 1 to the revised report (August 31, 2021) from the Controller.

This report provides information on account receivable amounts written off as uncollectable in 2020 under delegated authority provided to the Controller.

In 2020, after all appropriate and reasonable collection efforts were exhausted, recommendations and subsequent approval for write-offs were made by the Controller. The Controller approved write-offs of outstanding invoices for billable revenues totalling $432,701; $65,433 was the total write-off of individual amounts less than $50,000, while $367,268 was the total write-off of individual amounts between $50,000 and $500,000 recommended for write-off by the City Solicitor.  Invoices included in these write-off totals excluded grants and billable revenues for Parking Tags, Taxes and Utilities, which are managed under a different process. In all cases, revenues were recorded when initially invoiced, but allowances for doubtful accounts were established annually resulting in no financial impact in the 2020 fiscal year.

For the first time, this report includes the write-off of Provincial Offences Act fines deemed uncollectable. This action is consistent with City Council direction through the adoption of Item AU12.1 on May 22, 2018 stemming from the Auditor General report - Toronto Court Services: Collection of Provincial Offence Default Fines.   Following internal actions by Court Services staff, and as a result of recommendations made by Legal Services, the Controller was requested to exercise his delegated authority and write-off amounts up to $500,000.

Through delegated authority, the Controller has approved the write-off of 171,506 individual balances less than $500,000, totalling $20.6M. Balances owing were maintained in the provincially mandated case management system (Integrated Court Offence Network) for court offences. In all cases, no amounts were recovered since debtors were deceased, could not be located or exhaustive collection efforts proved futile.  There is no financial impact in fiscal 2020 from these write-offs since balances are not recognized as revenue until paid or there is reasonable expectation of collection.

In addition, the Controller is recommending that Council write-off eight cases totalling $8.8 million.  Details related to these eight cases, along with actions taken by staff and Legal Services to collect the amounts, have been included in this report.    

Of the $29.4 million that has been either approved by the Controller or is being recommended to Council for write-off, $16.5 million pertain to offences that occurred prior to the transfer of provincial court administration to the City in 2002. All amounts greater than $500,000 that are being recommended to Council for write-off have offence dates prior to the transfer.