Item - 2023.GG4.1

The General Government Committee recommends that:

1. City Council deem the unpaid property taxes levied in all years (including interest and penalties that have accrued on those unpaid taxes up to the time of write-off) on the 107 receivables listed in Attachment 1 of the report (May 15, 2023) from the the Controller uncollectible and direct the Controller to remove these amounts from the tax assessment roll by writing them off.

2. City Council deem the Provincial Offences Act fine of value of $1,420,974 listed in Table 3 and Attachment 3 of the report (May 15, 2023) from the the Controller uncollectible and direct the Controller to remove this amount from the respective account by writing it off.

This report provides information on accounts receivable amounts that were written off as uncollectible in 2022 under delegated authority provided to the Controller including property tax amounts owing, outstanding receivables for invoiced services and Provincial Offences Act (POA) fines.

This report recommends that Council deem uncollectible and approve for write-off certain property tax amounts owing on 18 individual property tax accounts, comprising 107 receivable amounts which total $75,853 that relate to taxation years 1995 to 2022.  Staff are recommending these property tax receivable amounts for write-off as they are no longer returned on the assessment roll, making collection efforts and recovery of outstanding amounts impossible.

In 2022, the Controller, in accordance with delegated authority as provided in the City’s Financial Control By-Law, has approved the write off of $544,218 in outstanding receivables for various services invoiced by City Divisions where collection is considered doubtful.

Finally, consistent with last year’s write-off report, the Controller has approved the write-off of 16,176 Provincial Offences Act (POA) cases totalling $3.2 million. 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 2022 fiscal year from these write-offs since amounts owing are not recognized as revenue until paid or unless there is reasonable expectation of collection.

Additionally, there is one case of a Provincial Offences Act (POA) receivable with a total dollar value of $1.4 million which this report recommends be deemed uncollectible and approved for write off, as the Controller does not have delegated authority to write-off. This offence relates to a pre-transfer case that is associated with a corporation that is no longer in operation and for which City Legal has confirmed that it has no recoverable assets.