Item - 2022.GL31.10

The General Government and Licensing Committee recommends that:

1. City Council deem the unpaid property taxes levied in all years (including interest and penalties which have accrued on those unpaid taxes up to the time of write-off) on the 133 receivables listed in Attachment 1 to the report (May 24, 2022) from the Controller as uncollectible, and direct the Controller to remove these amounts from the tax roll.

2. City Council deem the unpaid utility charges which have accrued on the 4 utility accounts listed in Attachment 2 to the report (May 24, 2022) from the Controller as uncollectible, and direct the Controller to remove these amounts from the respective utility accounts.

This report provides information on accounts receivable amounts written off as uncollectible in 2021 under delegated authority provided to the Controller.

 This report also recommends the write-off of property taxes deemed uncollectible for 43 individual property tax accounts (comprising 133 separate receivable amounts) relating to taxation years 1989 to 2022.  The receivable amounts recommended for write-off relate to property tax accounts that are no longer returned on the assessment roll, or for which further collection efforts and recovery of outstanding amounts are extremely unlikely to be successful.

The total estimated amount of property taxes to be written off is $1,487,851, consisting of principal taxes of $342,953 and accumulated interest/penalty of $1,144,898, as identified in Attachment 1.  All reasonable and appropriate collection efforts have been exhausted.  It is recommended that the property taxes, interest and fees that have accumulated over the period 1989 to 2022 be deemed uncollectible and written off.  The write-off of these amounts will have no impact on the current year's budget, as these amounts have all been previously provided for in the Allowance for Doubtful Tax Receivables Account in prior years.

In addition, a write-off is recommended for outstanding charges totalling $634,023 that are deemed uncollectible on 4 utility accounts, as identified in Attachment 2. The write-off of these charges has no financial implication on the current year's budget, as unpaid utility amounts are identified each year within a provision included in the general ledger as an Allowance for Doubtful Water Accounts.

Consistent with last year's write-off report, outstanding Provincial Offences Act fines and amounts collected by Court Services are included in this report. Following internal actions by Court Services staff, and as a result of recommendations made by Legal Services, the Controller was requested to exercise their delegated authority to write-off outstanding Provincial Offences Act amounts up to $500,000.

As a result, through delegated authority, the Controller has approved the write-off of 21,884 individual balances, each less than $500,000. Balances owing were maintained in the provincially mandated case management system (Integrated Court Offence Network, or ICON) for court offences. In all cases, no amounts were recovered since debtors could not be located or were deceased, the business was no longer in operation and/or had no assets, or exhaustive collection efforts proved futile. There is no financial impact in the 2021 fiscal year from these write-offs since balances are not recognized as revenue until paid or unless there is reasonable expectation of collection.

Of the total $1.8 million in uncollectible Provincial Offences Act amounts that have been approved by the Controller for write-off, approximately $70,000 (approximately 4 percent) pertain to offences that occurred prior to the transfer of provincial court administration to the City in 2002.