City to report overdue parking tickets to credit bureaus

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This article was published 14/02/2025 (276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg is taking new steps to crack down on millions of dollars in unpaid fines.

Within a few weeks, the city will start referring overdue tickets for parking and some bylaw offences to credit bureaus, so those who fail to pay the fines will also risk a hit to their credit scores.

“This is new. We’ve never been able to impact a person’s credit rating. We discussed this last year… now we know, legally, we can do this,” said Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of council’s public works committee.

The credit reports will apply to people who fail to pay fines for other city bylaw offences, such as penalties for long grass, noxious weeds and excess garbage.

A poor credit history can make it tougher for an individual to obtain a credit card, a loan or a mortgage and can also lead them to pay higher interest rates on loans. Each person’s credit report is based on loan history, including the total amount of debt and the number of missed payments.

Lukes (Waverley West) said she doesn’t think the added step to report missed city payments, which would affect that rating, is too severe.

“That’s not too harsh. (A parking tickets is) a violation, it’s law… pay your ticket and you won’t have to worry about it,” said Lukes.

City spokesman Adam Campbell said “delinquent accounts” will be reported to credit bureaus as part of a new city contract with a collections agency.

“Once the account is forwarded to the collections agency, a letter will be sent to the individual informing them of (the) outstanding fine and that their account will be reported to a credit bureau within 30 days of the letter delivery,” wrote Campbell, in an email. “We anticipate this change to happen over the next month.”

During a public works committee meeting on Friday, Winnipeg Parking Authority officials said about $7.85 million of Winnipeg parking tickets remain unpaid, while roughly $4 million more is outstanding for other affected fines.

“(We’re) exhausting all the potential avenues that we can to collect on payments,” said program manager Ajaleigh Williams.

Williams noted the city is toughening up a previous change it made to secure more payments last year.

In February 2024, the city implemented a policy to immediately tow and impound an illegally parked vehicle if the owner has three or more previous unpaid parking tickets, which allows a vehicle to be held until the cost of the tow and related fees are paid. That will now occur when there are two or more unpaid tickets.

The city expects to implement that change in August.

Lukes said she thinks the new enforcement measures are a great step forward to help collect an overall $12 million worth of unpaid fines, which she said the cash-strapped city needs.

In addition, the councillor said she will continue to push the provincial government to give the city more power to crack down on unpaid tickets. In October 2023, city council voted to ask the province to let the registrar of motor vehicles refuse to issue or renew driver’s licences and/or vehicle registrations for individuals with outstanding fines, as well as refuse to accept insurance premiums from vehicle owners with outstanding fines, even if that refusal results in insurance being cancelled.

The city also asked the province to let the municipal government add the fines to property tax bills.

Lukes said neither change has been granted at this point.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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