EDMONTON – Albertans who fail to pay fines for minor offences may soon discover they can’t register their vehicles.
The province proposed legislation Wednesday to change how it handles infractions such as littering, jaywalking, trespassing and riding a transit train without a ticket.
Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley said as it stands those who don’t pay have a warrant issued for their arrest, and could do jail time.
“We know that vulnerable people often end up in jail for something as small as not paying for transit,” she said.
“Landing in jail further perpetuates a cycle of incarceration and poverty, which certainly does not create safer communities or help vulnerable Albertans.”
She said the warrant system also puts an tremendous strain on public resources.
“Currently there are close to 187,000 outstanding warrants in Alberta,” she said.
“About half of those warrants are for relatively minor provincial and municipal offences.”
The new system will apply to fines of $1,000 or less.
People could still fight a ticket in court, but if they didn’t – or were convicted – but they would no longer be issued a warrant or face getting arrested.
The fine would come up instead when they tried to re-register their vehicle.
Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht said the legislation would free up police resources to deal with predators and serious criminal offenders.
“As a result of modernized technology and this new approach, a significant reduction in administrative processes and paperwork is expected,” Knecht said.
The province will not be going after drivers’ licences. Ganley said putting someone’s drivers’ licence at risk for a minor unpaid fine is excessive.
“It can have other effects. Someone may have to drive as part of their job,” she said.
This is the most proportionate response for now,” she said.
But she said they will monitor the results to see if going after vehicle registration alone is effective.
If that isn’t effective or if a person ticketed doesn’t own a vehicle, the province would then pursue other civil measures such as deducting the fine from income tax rebates.
With files from Global News.
Comments