Paradise writes off unpaid recreation fees

By Mark Squibb

The Town of Paradise has written off $81,673 in unpaid recreation fees.

The unpaid fees, representing programming, rental, and return payments, are dated from 2014 through to 2022.

“Staff are confident that everything that can be collected has been collected, and remaining balances will have to be written off,” said councillor Larry Vaters during this week’s public meeting.

Vaters added staff have implemented new procedures around the collection and payment of fees for recreation rentals, programs and sponsorships and there is nothing outstanding from 2021 or 2022 and less than $2,000 from 2023. Staff are working on payment plans to get the 2023 balance paid.

Vaters noted that writing off the fees would have no impact on the Town’s budget as the unpaid fees had already been accounted for.

Councillor Glen Carew said council had been briefed on the matter in private, but, for transparency’s sake, he had a few questions he would like addressed publicly.
The first was how many individual receivables made up the total amount. Vaters said the amount represented 77 accounts.

Carew then asked if all the receivables were legitimate and there were no errors which falsely inflated the total.

Vaters confirmed that, to the best of staff’s knowledge, all receivables were legitimate.

Lastly, Carew asked whether there was no possibility of collecting the monies.

“Based on a thorough review by staff, it is felt that everything that can be collected has been collected,” said Vaters.
The motion was approved unanimously.