Less than a third of $2 million in COVID-19 fines in B.C. have been paid, says ICBC

Less than a third of fines issued for violations of public health orders in British Columbia have been paid, according to ICBC, which processes the tickets.

As of Feb. 12, only 736 of the 2,724 provincial tickets on file had been paid. The paid tickets are worth about $387,761.

Another 417 tickets were in dispute with court dates requested, said ICBC, and the total value of outstanding unpaid fines is $623,300.

By email, the Crown corporation described another 1,181 violations as “guilty,” meaning the 30-day timeframe to dispute them had passed, the violation was in dispute but the alleged offender did not attend their court date, or the dispute was heard and led to a guilty judgment.

ICBC has also processed 390 “other” tickets — a group that includes cancelled tickets, withdrawn tickets, and “not guilty tickets,” in which a dispute was heard and led to a not guilty judgment.

Overall 120 tickets of the 2,724 on file have been withdrawn.

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Last week, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms said 25 COVID-19 fines of $2,300 each had been dropped for B.C. clients who held or participated in worship services.

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Another four connected to outdoor protests were withdrawn, it added.

The centre highlighted two examples of dropped tickets — the first issued to the Hudson’s Hope Bible Fellowship in relation to a livestreamed service on Jan. 10, 2021, and the second, to B.C. business owner Brian McLachlan, who participated in outdoor protests in Nelson.

“While the Crown has dropped some of the tickets issued to those exercising their basic Charter freedoms, it was a violation of the Charter to issue those tickets in the first place,” said staff lawyer Marty Moore in the Feb. 17 news release.

“Our work is not done.”

The total value of all the tickets on file between the start of the pandemic and Feb. 12 is close to $2 million.

Those in the age group of 20 to 29 were the most prolific alleged offenders with 842 tickets — about 31 per cent of the total. Those between 30 and 39 made up 24 per cent with 655 tickets, and residents between 50 and 59 made up 14.5 per cent with 396 tickets altogether.

People 80 years of age or older had the fewest tickets — eight altogether — while those 70 to 79 years old had 45 tickets. Fifty-one tickets are on file for alleged offenders under the age of 18.

Sixty-five of the tickets went to organizations, club, restaurants and other non-individual alleged offenders.

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ICBC noted that the status of tickets is not final.

According to its emailed statement, the Crown corporation is responsible for collecting provincial and federal violation ticket fines on behalf of the provincial government.

Those issued COVID-19 ticket fines who do not pay them, it said, may be issued an RTI — Refuse to Issue — which means a person will not be able to renew a driver’s licence, permit or vehicle licence until the outstanding fine is paid.