Deadbeat drivers across Ontario owe their municipalities more than $1 billion in outstanding traffic tickets, the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards reports.
The province gave municipalities the right to collect traffic fines in 2002, and said they could try to collect $485 million in unpaid tickets it was owed at the time. Thate figure has since grown to $1 billion.
The Association of Police Services says the problem of unpaid fines has been going on for more than a decade and is only getting worse.
They note that it's easier to avoid paying a fine for speeding or red light camera violations in Ontario than it is to dodge a parking ticket. That's because drivers who don't pay their parking tickets or Highway 407 toll bills can't get their licence plates renewed, but with traffic fines, there is no such threat.
The agency is asking the provincial government for help to collect the money owing on the unpaid traffic tickets.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says he's as surprised as anyone about the amount owing, noting that $1 billion could go a long way toward helping municipalities that are counting their pennies.
He calls the unpaid fines "a heck of a lot of money," and says the outstanding sum must be collected, both for the revenue and to show that traffic laws need to be enforced. And Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne calls the $1 billion in unpaid fines "unacceptable."
Attorney General Chris Bentley says the government introduced changes last fall that gave municipalities more power to collect fines for speeding and other traffic offences.
Bentley says the province is willing to listen if the police boards think they need more powers to go after speeding motorists from the United States who simply ignore the tickets they get in Ontario.
The Ottawa Police board says a collection agency should be called in to go after the deadbeats. Others suggest giving police the power to collect fines from out-of-province drivers on the spot, using credit cards or debit cards.
