City of Winnipeg looking for agency to help collect $12M in unpaid tickets

The City of Winnipeg is looking to hire a collections agency that can help it cash in on about $12 million in unpaid tickets — some of which date back to 2016.

The city has issued a request for proposals looking for an agency to collect the unpaid tickets, which shows a yearly breakdown dating back to 2016 of the number of tickets outstanding and the amounts due. It shows more than 102,000 tickets outstanding, for a total of $11.9 million.

About $8 million of that is in parking tickets, and another $4 million is in other fines that the city applies, said Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West), who also chairs the public works committee.

"If you're in violation of the law, you need to pay the ticket," said Lukes. "I don't know what's so hard about that to understand."

The city has previously worked with a collection agency, and the latest RFP is for a renewal or new contract, she said.

However, "we don't really have a lot of teeth to get into the collection aspect," she said.

She said the city sent a letter to the province a year ago asking that the city be allowed to withhold vehicle registration and insurance renewals for people with unpaid parking tickets. 

The city also suggested adding any outstanding parking fines onto people's property taxes, but all of these require legislation or an agreement from the province, she told host Faith Fundal during a Friday interview with CBC Radio's Up to Speed.

Ian Bushie, the minister responsible for municipal relations, said the province will work collaboratively with the city when it comes time to discuss potential solutions on the issue. 

"I think we're open to discussion with the city … and understanding their fiscal challenges, but we also don't want to have a knee-jerk reaction to the issues that may arise in the day," he told CBC this week. 

Lukes said Winnipeggers who are caught parking illegally will have their vehicles towed if they have three outstanding tickets, but up to that point, there's no other recourse for not paying the fines. 

Towing is "the only tool we have to encourage people to pay their parking tickets," she said, adding that the city is considering reducing the number of outstanding tickets needed before a vehicle is towed to two. 

The only thing the city can do to recoup the money owed is send letters from a collection agency asking people to "please pay," she said.

The city is trying to find new revenue sources as it faces a significant funding crunch. Last month, Mayor Scott Gillingham told business leaders the city desperately needs a new funding model, saying it's no longer "talking about trying to get funding for bells and whistles of legacy projects," but about "funding for basic services like pipes, pavement and police."