Toronto’s auditor general is urging the city to get tough with deadbeat residents and companies who owe taxpayers a staggering $577 million in unpaid provincial offences fines.

About two-thirds of people fined for such things as speeding, trespassing, alcohol infractions and violating bylaws voluntarily pay up, Beverly Romeo-Beehler says, but Toronto cannot afford to let the deadbeats off the hook.

“Given that the city is faced with constant pressure to find funding for crucial programs and services, it is important that those who owe debts to the city pay them,” the auditor wrote.

Her report says the city’s court services division is overlooking ways to get payment from people guilty of things like non-criminal driving offences or violating bylaws that govern animal control, excessive noise and more.

Of $577 million from more than two million offences, $421 million is owed to the city, $63 million is to be collected by Toronto on behalf of the province, and $93 million is to pay for collection agencies if the city needs to use them.

Three-quarters of the fines were levied more than five years ago.

Romeo-Beehler says the city needs a “methodical, consistent and timely approach” to collecting unpaid fines, including effectively using available collection tools, looking for new ones, and modernizing its use of data and technology.

Among Romeo-Beehler’s recommendations:

Ensure that, when possible, driver’s licences are suspended for non-payment of driving-related fines and, in other cases, the fines are added to offenders’ property tax bills.

Seek legislative change to help with licence plate denial, which does not always apply if the debtor is not the registered owner of the vehicle used in the offence, or for companies cited for commercial motor vehicle offences.

Ensure legal requirements are fulfilled so the city can garnish wages, or sell and seize property to recoup fines.

Follow the lead of other jurisdictions that use Canada Revenue Agency programming to grab income tax refunds to cover outstanding fines.

Speed up referral of overdue accounts to seven private collection agencies, which have recovered $18.5 million for the city out of almost $300 million assigned to them over about three years.

A separate report tabled by the auditor general Friday left advocates outraged over Romeo-Beehler’s recommendation that Toronto get out of the child-care business by transferring 52 city-run centres to the non-profit sector.

Councillor Janet Davis, a longtime champion of child care, challenged the auditor’s focus on savings: potentially $28 million annually, Romeo-Beehler estimated.

“The city of Toronto children’s services division has to concern itself not just with value for money, but value for children,” Davis said.

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Municipally run centres are among the highest quality in the city, largely due to the higher proportion of fully trained staff, and the generous wages and benefits they receive, she said.

Those good wages — an average of $33.75 an hour versus about $22 per hour in the non-profit sector — are why parent fees are higher.

With files from Laurie Monsebraaten

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