Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie, left, and CAO John Enns-Wind shown at council Monday. The town received an update on outstanding property taxes at the meeting that indicated its recent collection efforts have been successful. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Clamping down on arrears

Town tackles outstanding property taxes with ‘boots on the ground’ approach

Jun 18, 2019 | 12:19 PM

Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened.

That seems to be the new motto for the Town of Battleford which managed to recover a heaping amount of property taxes in arrears by being direct with ratepayers, and taking action.

In giving his report to council Monday Finance Director David Gillan said with concentrated efforts this spring the town managed to knock down the outstanding balance for property taxes (municipal and education taxes) from $659,744 in December 2018 to $191,054 as of June 10, 2019.

“It’s tremendous,” Mayor Ames Leslie said following council. “Every dollar that we can collect that’s outstanding takes the stress off the homeowner, takes the stress off our finance department, and is one more dollar in the town’s reserves to pave more streets, to build more parks, to improve the community as a whole.”

Gillan said the town doesn’t need to hire a collection agency in an effort to recover taxes in arrears as long as it continues a plan of making phone calls and sending letters to delinquent ratepayers each spring.

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At the end of March the town had $579,136 outstanding but has been able to knock that amount down by about $50,000 each month through its focused collection work.

Gillan said when ratepayers saw news reports this spring that the town would start to step up its efforts, many ratepayers came forward to pay or arrange payment plans, which was a good start to the initiative.

“I did what you call ‘boots on the ground’, which is what I believe is the most effective way to collect any debt that any business is owed – picking up the phone, sending letters, corresponding with those that are having trouble,” Gillan said. “For the most part, that is what happens, (people) get behind for various reasons… We all have times when things don’t quite go our way.”

He said he sent more than 100 letters at the beginning of April to the largest debtors and gave them until end of May to settle their accounts or devise a plan, or else the town would take more steps to collect the funds owing.

One ratepayer owing $18,000 went out of business so the town was able collect the funds from the bank.

“Picking up the phone worked,” Gillan added. “You just have to keep working the phone and keep working ratepayers until you get some answers.”

He said April and May are the best time to collect since in June the town issues its next round of bills, which will make it even more difficult for ratepayers struggling with their debts.

Gillan related the town should send the same letter every year, and make the same calls to be most effective.

“Never be above $300,000 (owing),” he added, to prevent the outstanding balance from ballooning out of control. “If we do that we’ll be very successful.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW