Ottawa to write off 6,539 old parking tickets worth $273,047
City staff are recommending council cancel thousands of unpaid parking tickets issued before 1995, as well as 440 outstanding offence tickets from the 1990s and 2000s.
Reported. A news outlet found this. voche.me names the outlet and links its report. Read the original report on ctvnews.ca.
Ottawa city staff are recommending that council cancel 6,539 unpaid parking tickets issued between 1989 and 1995, according to a report filed for the finance and corporate services committee. CTV News Ottawa reported the recommendation on November 2.
The tickets are worth $273,047 combined. Deputy City Treasurer Joseph Muhuni says the city has tried every available collection method and cannot recover the money.
What the city tried before giving up
The staff report lists the collection steps the city took before recommending the writeoff: sending collection notices, offering extended payment plans, reporting debtors to credit bureaus, adding fines to tax rolls, assigning accounts to third-party collection agencies, and taking civil enforcement steps including wage garnishment.
"Despite these attempts, certain infractions have remained uncollectible," the report says, as quoted by CTV News Ottawa.
The tickets predate Ottawa's 2001 municipal amalgamation, which merged the old City of Ottawa with surrounding communities. CTV News Ottawa reports the city wrote off $2.6 million in a similar batch in 2024, covering 71,835 tickets also issued between 1989 and 1995.
Other fines in the same report
The same report recommends writing off 440 Provincial Offences Act tickets worth $498,276, issued for various offences between 1993 and 2013.
CTV News Ottawa reports the city also plans to cancel $981,101 in corporate receivable accounts, $444,146 in water, wastewater and stormwater bills, and two transit receivables worth $227,123.
Ottawa's parking ticket program collected $34.3 million in revenue in 2025, and Provincial Offences Act revenue reached $54 million that year, according to the CTV News Ottawa report.
Unpaid parking tickets stay on a driver's record with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Ontario-plated vehicle owners cannot renew their licence plates until all infractions tied to their plate are paid. That enforcement tool applies to current tickets, but the pre-1995 tickets being written off are too old to collect under that process.
What happens next
The finance and corporate services committee meets on November 10, 2026. Residents who want to see the full staff report or attend the meeting can check the City of Ottawa's meetings site at https://pub-ottawa.escribemeetings.com/.
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and the full council will then vote on whether to accept the recommendation.
Questions this story answers
How many parking tickets is Ottawa writing off?
City staff are recommending the cancellation of 6,539 parking tickets issued between 1989 and 1995, before Ottawa's municipal amalgamation. Those tickets have a combined value of $273,047, according to a report by Deputy City Treasurer Joseph Muhuni prepared for the finance and corporate services committee.
Why is Ottawa cancelling these tickets?
The city says it has used every tool available to collect the money, including collection notices, payment plans, credit bureau reporting, adding fines to tax rolls, and third-party collection agencies. Despite those efforts, the tickets remain uncollectable, according to the staff report.
Are there other fines being written off at the same time?
Yes. City staff are also recommending the cancellation of 440 Provincial Offences Act tickets worth $498,276, issued for various offences between 1993 and 2013. The same report also covers $981,101 in corporate receivable accounts, $444,146 in unpaid water and wastewater bills, and two transit receivables worth $227,123.
How much has Ottawa collected from old parking tickets recently?
CTV News Ottawa reports that Deputy City Treasurer Joseph Muhuni told council the city collected $2.85 million from defaulted parking tickets between August and December 2025. The total parking receivables as of December 2025 stood at $71.7 million, according to the same report.
How much does parking revenue bring in for Ottawa overall?
Parking tickets generated $34.3 million in revenue for the City of Ottawa in 2025, according to CTV News Ottawa's report on the staff document. Provincial Offences Act revenue was $54 million in 2025.
Did Ottawa do something similar before?
Yes. CTV News Ottawa reports that in 2024 the city wrote off $2.6 million in unpaid fines covering 71,835 outstanding parking tickets also issued between 1989 and 1995. That earlier writeoff covered the same era and the same reason: the city had tried every available collection method and could not recover the money.
How do unpaid Ottawa parking tickets affect drivers?
The city reports unpaid parking tickets to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Ontario-plated vehicle owners cannot renew their licence plates until all infractions tied to their plate, including parking tickets, are paid. This enforcement tool applies to current tickets but no longer recovers debt on the pre-1995 tickets being written off.
When will Ottawa council vote on this?
The recommendation goes to the finance and corporate services committee meeting on November 10, 2026. Ottawa residents can check the City's meetings site at https://pub-ottawa.escribemeetings.com/ for the agenda and details on how to attend.
Sources
The pages this story draws on. Open one to check a claim yourself.
- CTV News Ottawa: City of Ottawa forgiving 6,500 parking tickets from 1989-1995ctvnews.ca
- City of Ottawa finance and corporate services committee meetingspub-ottawa.escribemeetings.com
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