VARIANCE DESCRIPTION

The total departmental year-end variance is projected to be approximately: ($238,000) (Deficit)

Provincial Offences Division: ($700,000)

Provincial Offences Division: ($700,000)

The Provincial Offences Division (POA) was impacted greatly by Ministry ordered court closures and suspension of POA timelines due to Covid-19. The substantial impact to revenue is attributed to the order not allowing suspension of driver’s licenses, and therefore no action has been required by defendants to pay their fines. Until the removal of the suspension of POA timelines, which will occur on Dec.2, 2020 at the earliest, there will be a significant decline in revenue collected. Another contributing factor to the reduced revenue is that all Part III offences need to be heard in court before a conviction. Therefore, there is a backlog of Part III tickets that have not been convicted and paid. In addition, there is also a significant decline in offences issued during the March to October 2020 timeframe, which has also affected revenue collection. It should also be noted that POA is not incorporating any surplus from the Westcourt Rent Budget ($316,000) in this analysis. Now located in 400 City Hall, administration is recommending to Council the use of this budget to fund renovations.

Risk Management Division: $300,000

The $300,000 in projected surplus is mostly comprised of claim costs and insurance premium surpluses. However, the intention of the department is to transfer any surplus to the Self Insurance Reserve Fund at year-end, as per normal practice to fund that reserve.

Legal Division: $87,000

$87,000 projected surplus in external legal fees and salaries due to positional vacancies and a new employee at a lower step than budgeted.

Real Estate: $75,000

$75,000 projected salary surplus due to a leave of absence.

MITIGATING STEPS

Provincial Offences Division

Starting September 14, 2020 the Master Court schedule came back into affect to allow POA to hold remote Early Resolution meetings and pleas. These matters are dealt with and convicted allowing the collection on the outstanding fines.

Also, as of September 28, 2020, remote non-trial court appearances are approved to be held in POA courts which will allow POA to get through the backlog of Part III tickets. This should increase the revenue collected from October onwards as it relates to Part III matters.

POA also continues to strategize collection efforts on previous outstanding offences and will utilize as much court time as able to with available Judiciary resources.

POA will put forward a budget request of one-time funding for projected revenue loss due to Covid-19 in 2021 if the order is in effect passed Dec.2, 2020.