Regina trying to collect $12M in unpaid property taxes

What would you do with an extra $12 million?

It’s a question the City of Regina would love to ponder but can’t, because it’s still trying to collect on $12.168 million of unpaid property taxes from 2018 and years prior.

According to Mayor Michael Fougere, that money would go into the City’s general operating budget.

Once there, it could be used on everyday items like repairing potholes in roads, sanding city streets in winter time, maintaining public pools and keeping up Regina’s hockey arenas.

But Fougere cautioned he didn’t want to speak in hypotheticals of where the money would or wouldn’t be spent.

“This is the reality of it. We strive for compliance, 100-per-cent compliance. But when we get over 98 per cent, you’re doing very, very well,” he said.

Each year from 2013 to 2018, property owners have a 98-per-cent compliance rate of paying their taxes on time.

But still, that two per cent of non-payers has added up: As of early February this year, 1,841 property owners owe the city at least $200; 300 owners owe less than $200.

The debt amount is current as of Jan. 1 this year, according to the City’s main communications person, Desirae Bernreuther. She said the City expects that number to change as it begins collecting on debts owing.

But making owners pay up takes some time.

“We don’t just go in cold-heartedly and seize a property,” Fougere said. “It’s regulated under (the provincial Cities Act and the Tax Enforcement Act). But we also use a lot of compassion here, like ‘we want to help you out here.'”

It starts on June 30 of the current year of taxes owing. Between that date and Dec. 31, the City gives an owner up to five reminders about due taxes; payment options include full payment, enrolling in an instalment payment program or postdated cheques.

In January and February of the next calendar year, “the property is advertised in the local newspaper advising that a tax lien will be applied to the property unless the tax arrears are paid,” Bernreuther said in an email.

At least 60 days after that, the City registers a tax lien on the property if the taxes are still unpaid.

Right now Regina has 502 liens registered on properties.

Then at least six months after the lien, the City gives the owner notice that he/she has six months to pay any outstanding debt.

At least one year after the lien is registered, the provincial mediation board can give the City consent to take title (i.e. ownership) of a property, or it can set up a payment plan for the owner.

The owner is then given 30 days notice that title for his/her property will be transferred to the City if the remaining taxes aren’t paid in that last-chance, 30-day window.

In other words, “transfer of title occurs at a minimum 18 to 24 months from the date that the taxes were due,” Bernreuther said in an email.

Since 2013, the City has taken title to eight properties; it has sold seven of them and one is currently for sale.

“Other than pursuing to take title of properties in tax arrears via the tax enforcement steps … the City has not pursued any legal action against a property owner for unpaid taxes in the last five years (2013-18),” fellow City communications person Jamie Lewis said in an email.

As for breaking down the $12.168 million amount into years and determining how much is owing from each year, Lewis said the City is unable to do that.

“Once the outstanding 2018 taxes are rolled into the arrears, we do not have the ability to provide the breakdown by year,” she said.