TORONTO

No one got a ticket for littering in the City of Toronto last year.

Officials confirmed Tuesday that zero fines were handed out in 2014 under the city’s littering bylaw.

In the wake of Mayor John Tory complaining about the streets looking “dirtier” than five years ago, the Toronto Sun asked city licensing officials whether anyone was issued a ticket for tossing their trash — from big items to cigarette butts — on public property.

It turns out, no one was charged — despite a bylaw that bans littering across the city.

Under the city’s municipal code, no person “shall, throw, place, dump, deposit or permit or cause to be thrown, placed, dumped or deposited any refuse on any highway within the city.” The bylaw goes on to prohibit littering on any other piece of land in the city including ponds, lakes, rivers and watercourses.

City spokesman Tammy Robbinson blamed the lack of tickets on the need for the person to be “caught in the act, and then produce ID to the bylaw enforcement officer.

“The person has to produce identification in order for an enforcement officer to issue a charge,” Robbinson explained.

don.peat@sunmedia.ca