The B.C. government says people who don’t pay COVID-19-related fines could be refused driver’s or vehicle licences.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announced the move Wednesday, which will be accomplished by amending the Motor Vehicle Act.
Read more: ‘We are not going to let it drop’: Majority of $1.1M in COVID-19 fines issued in B.C. remain unpaid
The change would empower ICBC to refuse to issue or renew licensing due to unpaid fines associated with B.C.’s Emergency Program Act and COVID-19 Related Measures Act.
The province says the refusals would apply to all outstanding fines, and be applied retroactively. People with an outstanding fine would get a warning ahead of their driver’s licence expiry date, and would retain the right to appeal through the superintendent of motor vehicles.
- ‘I’m very sorry’: Accused in seawall stranger attack seeks not criminally responsible finding
- Concerns grow in Kelowna after RCMP confirm 2 extortion-related incidents
- Hundreds of construction zone speeding tickets already issued this year: Calgary police
- B.C. police seize illicit drugs in Metro Vancouver after multi-month investigation
The new enforcement is scheduled to begin on July 1.
The move comes as the province struggles to recoup fines issued to people caught violating COVID-19 restrictions.
Get weekly health news
ICBC, which collects ticket fines on behalf of the provincial government, has processed 1,679 violation tickets so far, amounting to $1.17 million — just $172,825, or 14 per cent of that figure, has actually been paid.
In December, the province directed ICBC to send unpaid fines to collections as soon as their 30-day payment or dispute penalty ended.
Comments
Comments closed.
Due to the sensitive and/or legal subject matter of some of the content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the ability to disable comments from time to time.
Please see our Commenting Policy for more.