Fines Wiped Off Books

The town of Fort Frances has been forced to write-off more than $105-thousand in unpaid fines from its books.

Treasurer Laurie Witherspoon says it doesn't mean those owing the provincial offences act fines won't have to pay them ever again.

"Although we are doing a write-off, it is for accounting purposes only, " says Witherspoon. "P.O.A. fines are not absolved. They are for a convicted offender and still required to pay the fine and out it in perpetuity."

The unpaid fines date back to 2003.

Councillor Paul Ryan says the inability to collect the fines, even by a collections' agency, left to the town having write them off.

"A lot of these are so old," says Ryan. "We don't have a reciprocal agreement between Ontario and Manitoba. The fine is given in Ontario, but they don't collect it for us. Unless the person returns to the scene, it's pretty hard in some cases to track these down."