Unpaid parking fines in Hamilton pile up amid eased rules for licence plate renewal

Yearly average of $500,000 in unpaid penalties spiked to $1.8 million in 2022

Thestar.com
July 10, 2023
Teviah Moro

The city is blaming a ballooning amount of unpaid parking fines on the province’s decision to relax policy for licence plate renewals.

When parking scofflaws don’t pay tickets, it eventually catches up to them when they renew plates with the Ministry of Transportation.

The province says plate renewal changes -- no more fees and stickers -- are meant to lighten the load on Ontarians amid rising costs.

“Eliminating licence plate renewal fees and the requirement to have a licence plate sticker means that an Ontario family with two vehicles will save up to $480 each time they renew,” a ministry spokesperson said in an email.

The province has also refunded a collective $2.2 billion in plate renewal fees to 7.25 million vehicle owners in Ontario.

But the provincial policy changes, implemented in 2020 and 2022, are “believed to have made drivers less mindful, or aware of the need to renew their licence plates,” notes a city staff report before councillors Tuesday.

“Historically, with an annual issuance of over $5 million in issued (parking) penalties, it could be expected that approximately 10 per cent or $500,000 would be carried as outstanding revenue.”

That could be due to a variety of factors, including deaths, people not driving anymore or plain “avoidance.”

But since the province’s changes, unpaid fines have spiked “significantly” -- to $1.8 million in 2022.

The cumulative impacts on outstanding revenue are estimated at $3 million to 3.5 million, says the staff report, noting the dip in revenue means less for capital projects and infrastructure work.

If that’s never recovered, it’s a big hit for the city due to the province’s decision, says Coun. John-Paul Danko.

“I’m not sure that’s something that they even considered or thought of when they initiated the change, but that’s the reality for municipalities.”

In 2020, Ontario had 366,026 outstanding renewals for “fit/active” vehicles, according to the ministry. That increased to 426,226 in 2021 and spiked to 1,047,068 in 2022. As of March 2023, there were 301,838 expired plates.

Danko has placed a motion on Tuesday’s planning committee agenda that calls on Mayor Andrea Howarth to raise the issue with the province and request “new tools” to help collect outstanding penalties.

“From our perspective, those tickets are issued. We’re expecting to collect on them, and in the meantime, they just sit there as uncollected revenue,” he said.

In its email, the ministry noted it sent “reminder letters” in the fall of 2021 and summer of 2022 to people with expired plates.

“We continue to encourage individuals to renew online at Ontario.ca/Renew if their licence plate is expired or cancelled. Also, individuals, can sign up for digital reminders to receive their renewal notices by email or text.”