B.C. cracks down on $114m worth of unpaid traffic tickets

VICTORIA – British Columbia drivers have racked up $114 million in unpaid traffic tickets, but the province has done far better in forcing scofflaws to pay penalties than jurisdictions such as Ontario.

About 87 per cent of ticketed drivers in B.C. forked over the cash to cover their traffic fines in the past five years, according to figures kept by the Insurance Corporation of B.C.

There’s only $114 million in unpaid fines on the books since ICBC started collecting the money on behalf of the government 15 years ago, ICBC said.

That figure stands in sharp contrast to Ontario, which is grappling this week for a way to collect more than $1 billion in outstanding tickets.

There, municipalities are responsible for collecting the money, but officials with the Ontario Association of Police Service Boards said they have been unsuccessful. Ontario municipalities are now considering adding owed fees to property-tax bills.

B.C. is a far different story, in large part because ICBC forces people to pay their outstanding bills before their driver’s licences are renewed every five years.

"If they don’t pay, they don’t drive, it’s as simple as that," said Mark Jan Vrem, ICBC media relations manager. That’s also why B.C. has the lowest rate of unlicensed and uninsured drivers in North America, he said.

There are dozens of ticketable offences under B.C.’s Motor Vehicle Act, including speeding (up to $483), failing to wear a seatbelt ($167), improper turns ($121) and disobeying a stop sign ($167). There are separate tickets for being caught by a red-light camera, and additional fees to erase driver penalty points that accumulate with each ticket.

While ICBC succeeds in collecting most unpaid fines, it has difficulty in cases where the driver is from a different province, declares bankruptcy, moves away from B.C., or simply continues to drive without a licence to avoid paying fines, said Jan Vrem.

In those cases, ICBC uses private collection agencies and, in cases of large outstanding balances, attempts to garnish tax returns using the Canada Revenue Agency refund set-off program, he said.