Hamilton still owed more than $80,000 in unpaid COVID fines

The director of Hamilton's licensing and bylaw services department says she's confident the city will see the repayment of at least $80,700 in unpaid tickets from people and businesses accused of breaking pandemic rules.

In an email to The Spectator, city spokesperson Michelle Shantz said bylaw officers have issued a combined 466 charges against businesses and individuals who broke masking and physical distancing rules since they were implemented back in 2020 - as first reported by CBC Hamilton.

And of those tickets, 195 remain unpaid - totalling at least $80,700 (plus late fees) owed to the city, according to Shantz.

I'm confident the city will use every tool within their tool belt to collect them back," Ciriello said in an interview Monday.

These fines under the city's own bylaws fall under the administrative penalty system (APS). That means they are dealt with by the city, as opposed to the courts, and exclude charges under the province's Reopening Ontario Act and the Emergency Measures and Civil Protection Act.

How are the tickets handled?

Ciriello said when someone is ticketed by bylaw they have two weeks to appeal the charge before it's affirmed.

If someone opts to appeal the ticket, they then appear before a screening officer who reviews the ticket as well as the evidence surrounding the charge.

Ciriello said that officer can then choose to uphold or cancel the charge - the latter of which would happen if there are potential errors in the ticket, a lack of evidence or combative evidence is brought forward, she added.

If someone doesn't pay their fine after more than two weeks, a late fee of around $60 is added. If 46 days pass by and the fine still isn't paid, another surcharge is added.

Ciriello said, eventually, the penalties could be added to an individual's property taxes or as a provision on a business licence - ultimately requiring them to pay the fee. That process has started for some, she noted.

Even if the bylaws were eventually repealed, the fines given out while they were in place would still stand," added Ciriello.

Any charges that were issued when a bylaw was valid would remain to be a valid charge," she said.

By the numbers

Since March 2020 - otherwise known as the early days of the pandemic - city bylaw officers have written up more than 1,600 tickets for COVID-related offences, according to numbers provided to The Spectator.

Under the city's own pandemic bylaws, 220 tickets were issued for physical-distancing contraventions, while 246 fines were levied for face-covering infractions.

Of those charges, Shantz said 221 - totalling just over $73,000 worth in fines - have been paid. Nearly 140 of those tickets were issued to businesses, while 82 were handed out to individuals.

More than 40 tickets were cancelled at their respective hearings.

Data from the city shows that 109 of those total tickets were handed out in Ward 2 (downtown Hamilton), while 77 of them were issued in Ward 9 (upper Stoney Creek).

A bulk of the city's tickets were provincial offences - with 326 tickets dolled out for violations under the Emergency Measures and Civil Protection Act, while 863 were issued under the Reopening Ontario Act (ROA).

The Spectator reached out to the province for comment on the status of those charges but was told by a spokesperson that they could not meet the deadline.

Fallon Hewitt is a reporter at The Spectator. fhewitt@thespec.com