Derrick Krizsan, chief administrative officer
The Alberta Ministry of Justice has launched an internal investigation into an apparent misallocation to provincial coffers of fine revenue belonging to the MD of Willow Creek.
“There has been no recent change in how traffic fine money is distributed,” the ministry said in a statement emailed Oct. 28 to The Macleod Gazette. “Court operations is investigating if there were irregularities with payments to the MD of Willow Creek.”
The statement follows Gazette inquiries after the municipal district’s staff told council about the issue Oct. 15.
Staff said about one in 10 recent tickets for provincial violations issued by the municipality’s community peace officers has been changed to a Province of Alberta ticket, eliminating the MD of Willow Creek from its 60 per cent portion.
The MD of Willow Creek was not consulted, and the reallocation came about “for some inexplicable reason,” said a report from Derrick Krizsan, the chief administrative officer.
In a follow-up interview, Krizsan said the municipality does not know yet how much money it’s lost. But the allocation is more than an anomaly, and the MD needs the revenue, the CAO said.
“An anomaly is one in a thousand. This is one in 10,” Krizsan said. “So we have no idea how much money we’re losing to fund our very basic community policing program.”
The tickets appear to be those on the high end of the fine range. An example put before council was $1,250 for a driver doing 198 in a 110 km/h zone. Even though the community peace officer wrote the ticket, all the money was recoded to the province, council heard.
Traffic Safety Act enforcement is a critical local service, Krizsan said. “Someone’s got to slow these people down because the RCMP isn’t doing it.”
The MD of Willow Creek is crossed by two major corridors and served by numerous roads and highways. Highway 2 runs north-south through Willow Creek, Highway 3 runs east-west.
Of every Traffic Safety Act ticket issued by the peace officers, 40 per cent normally goes to the government. Each ticket also includes a 20 per cent surcharge that goes to the province to pay for victim services.
The MD of Willow Creek’s emergency services department searched the system and found that the tickets it identified as improperly coded started out with the proper pay centre information, council heard.
Council approved sending a letter about the issue to Justice Minister Mickey Amery, Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally, and Livingstone-Macleod MLA Chelsae Petrovic.
A possible follow-up would be bearpit discussion of the issue at the fall convention of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta, Nov. 17-20 in Edmonton.
Also a possibility is that councillors and the reeve meet with Amery at the convention.
Fine revenue distribution is already contentious among Alberta municipalities.
The government increased its revenue cut from municipal enforcement of provincial violations to 40 per cent of fine revenue in 2020 from 26.7 per cent.
The move cost municipalities an estimated $37-million in the first year.
Municipal governments have characterized the change as a downloading of costs to local taxpayers.
But the government said in 2019 it needed to find more revenue without increasing provincial taxes, and one way to do that was through a split that better reflected services it provides.
Even with the change, provincial ticket and penalty revenue for the department hasn’t increased, with it ranging from almost $200-million to under $150-million across a six-year sample.
Provincial documents peg Alberta Justice net revenue from fines and penalties at about $198.3-million in 2019-2020.
The total dropped to $175-million the next year — despite the jump in the province’s share.
The drop was likely because of shutdowns and traffic reductions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number rebounds slightly to about $186-million in 2021-’22. But revenue for the category dropped significantly to $145-million the next year, apparently because enforcement levels and use of photo radar both went down.
A rebound to an estimated $171.1-million happened in 2023-’24, but new photo radar restrictions are expected to take their toll in 2024-’25 and reduce the figure to $156.5-million.
The ministry statement says court operations will report findings to the municipal district when the investigation is complete.
