• Stouffville will implement its Administrative Monetary Penalty System (AMPS) on May 8 of this year.
  • This new system empowers the municipality to internally process by-law ticketing, moving it away from the Ontario court system.
  • Under AMPS, the recipient of a ticket wishing to dispute a charge can request a review from a Town Screening Officer.
  • Following a discussion with the ticket recipient, the Screening Officer can modify, cancel, or affirm the ticket and propose a payment plan as needed.
  • Should the recipient disagree with the Screening Officer’s decision, they have the option to request a hearing from a third-party Hearing Officer located in Newmarket.
  • Hearing Officers will evaluate the offence, listen to arguments from both the ticket recipient and the Town, and determine whether to reduce, cancel, or affirm the penalty. Their decision is final.
  • Failure to pay a fine will result in it being transferred to the offender’s property tax balance or forwarded to the Ministry of Transportation for application to their plate, depending on the infraction type.
  • Parking, Noise, and Short Term Rentals By-Law infractions are first to join the new AMPS system, with further transition of the Town’s by-law enforcement program slated for the coming years.

 

From illegal parking tickets to speeding infractions captured by the Town’s future automated speed enforcement cameras, AMPS promises expedited processing and improved fine collections. It also aims to alleviate strain on Ontario’s court system, facilitate dispute resolutions, and enable Stouffville to retain penalty-based revenues within the municipality, ultimately enhancing by-law compliance.

Under the current system, Stouffville’s By-Law Officers lodge charges under the Provincial Offences Act, with dispute resolution often bottlenecked by the heavily burdened Ontario court system. Some offenders have “gamed the system” by contesting tickets, exploiting delayed processing to evade payment, and even having charges dismissed outright.

AMPS effectively decriminalizes local by-law infractions, transferring enforcement and dispute resolution away from the court system and into the municipality’s domain. Staff anticipate that processing timelines, which can stretch across multiple years due to court congestion, will be reduced to a maximum of six months.

According to Staff, approximately 20% of all municipal by-law tickets are disputed. They noted that AMPS provides an easy dispute process thanks to virtual portals, which may initially result in an even higher frequency of contested penalties. However, this behaviour is expected to shift by 2025 as offenders realize that disputing a charge does not promise cancellation or reduction of their fine.

“If you’re not coming to the municipality with a very good reason as to why the ticket should be reduced, we’re not going to reduce it,” explained Anthony Fabrizi, Stouffville’s AMPS Coordinator, during Council’s April 24 meeting.

“You have to present a very good argument to the Hearing Officer that either the Screening Officer has erred in their decision, or there are other circumstances not considered,” he added. “Then that’s it, it’s game over: either the ticket gets cancelled, or the municipality gets its money.”

More information can be found in the Town’s initial AMPS report from April of last year and the update report received by Council last week.