Whereas local governments face challenges in collecting unpaid bylaw fines; And whereas the collection of unpaid bylaw fines through the property tax collection process will aim to streamline the enforcement of bylaws, enhance compliance and ensure that local governments can effectively manage and collect outstanding fines: Therefore be it resolved that the UBCM petition the Province of British Columbia to develop legislation that allows local governments to apply unpaid fines issued for property-related bylaw infractions to be collected by transfer to property taxes.
Ministry of Finance Property taxes are taxes levied against a specific property for the provision of government services. Unpaid property taxes form a lien on the underlying property as the property owner benefitted from these services prior to payment. If taxes become delinquent, a municipality has authority under the Community Charter to initiate a tax sale process in the year the taxes become delinquent. Some fees and charges relating to services provided to specific properties e.g. a water utility fee or a garbage pickup fee are included in this. Because of the similarity to property taxes, section 258 of the Community Charter allows for these limited fees to be incorporated into taxes in arrears and ultimately linked to the tax sale process. It is important to note though, that this is a very limited application of the broad scope of potential fees, most of which are not eligible for inclusion as taxes in arrears. Fines and penalties like noise, parking, and nuisance violations are very different from taxes and eligible fees because they do not relate to servicing a property. Instead, they are issued for violations of civic regulations. Enforcement of property tax payments includes the ability of a municipality to collect outstanding payments through a potential tax sale. This tool is only appropriate for some types of debts such as outstanding taxes, and not appropriate for others such as those related to violations of civic regulation. There are other remedies available to local governments for levying, administering, and collecting fine violations through the Local Government Bylaw Notice Enforcement Act, Part 8 of the Community Charter ticketing of bylaw offenses, and the Offense Act. The Province is not considering expanding section 258 of the Community Charter; special fees collected as property tax to include fine violations as part of taxes in arrears.