Faced with receivables dating back to 2005, the Town of Athabasca council voted against writing off $24,924.93 in trade receivables at the last council meeting, held July 19.
This includes a bill of $5,193 to Athabasca County regarding the Visitors Information Centre in 2012, a total of $10,318.30 to Husky Oil for finance charges from 2005 to 2010, and $8,406 to Athabasca Pipelines in 2009, which is no longer in business.
It also included $525 bill to the Bank of Nova Scotia for rink board advertising in 2013, an item that was listed as a “possible system error” that administration is currently investigating.
“The trade receivables listing currently has $57,029.42,” said Rodney Boyko, who was the interim director of finance at the time and has since left office. “Of that, ($44,440.38) has been listed in accounts receivable over 90 days. This was as of July 11, 2016.”
He continued, saying that in 2012, it looked like action was taken to try to collect a number of the receivables.
“They were forwarded to collections agencies, they were essentially – some of them were collected, we no longer see those on this list,” he said. “But ($24,456) was deemed uncollectable, and those listings (were) given back to the town from the collections agencies.”
The request for decision states that the amounts have remained on the ledger with no further action since 2012.
Coun. Shelly Gurba said she was concerned about the paperwork behind some of the numbers.
“Now, I’m a bit concerned that there’s a lot of paperwork that’s kind of been disappearing since back in 2005,” she said. “If something wasn’t collectible, why have we waited this long? Why are the previous councils or anyone else not looking into these and actively trying to get this money? I mean, that’s a fair bit of money that’s just kind of sitting outstanding, and now the paper trails have just disappeared and this is like at least a one per cent or better increase in tax to be alleviated.”
Councillors Joanne Peckham, Tanu Evans and Nichole Adams voiced their concerns about the Athabasca County debt specifically. A document included in the agenda package displaying the total trade receivables overdue by at least 90 days reads the status of the payment as “County paid half of original charges and dispute remaining amounts.”
“I am confused in regards to the County of Athabasca for 2012,” said Coun. Joanne Peckham. “There’s the visitor’s centre and they owe us $5,198 and you’re saying it’s doubtful we’re going to get that money?”
Boyko said he was speaking based on recorded information.
“They’re saying that they weren’t going to pay the rest of that,” he said. “So, that probably should have been adjusted at that time, however, it just stayed on the books.”
“Did we not have an agreement on how much they would pay? And if so, are they in breach of that agreement if they were partners in operating the visitors’ centre or however it was in 2012?” Adams asked. “Was this not clearly laid out in a motion, in some minutes on their part? Why were we billing them if we didn’t have a right to? And why are they not paying their bill if we did? I am very frustrated, because we already wrote off a receivable for the water commission – we wrote off six figures in whatever receivable grant that went poof and didn’t exist, so now we’re looking at another $44,000.”
Earlier in the meeting, council had also voted in favour of writing off $554.50 in receivables from a 2012 Magnificent River Rats Society bill, as Boyko stated he did not have “enough records that I was able to ascertain the exact details as to what this bill is for.”
“I think we should deal with this kind of individually,” Evans said. “The little ones, there’s no sense in going to collections or anything, if we can’t collect them, that’s it. But the bigger ones, I still think we should. I mean, the county one infuriates me to no end, specifically because we covered the fundraising costs that the county just kind of dumped on us, catching up to the fundraising commitments that didn’t come through, etc.”
Chief administrative officer Josh Pyrcz said with respect to the visitor’s centre, “we had pretty much what we could find.”
Coun. Tim Verhaeghe noted that legal factors could impair administration from collecting on the older items.
“I hate to point out the obvious, but from a legal point of view with the statues, we can’t collect on most of these accounts because there’s a two-year limitation date or a statute of limitations,” he said. He later added that he was not giving a legal opinion, and that if the town wanted one, it should consult with its own lawyers.
Ultimately, Evans made a motion to write off the all of the accounts past the statute of limitations, except for the Athabasca County.
“I would at least like to chat with them over this,” he noted. “I just, I don’t think that they’re not paying their fair share.”
Boyko added that the Evans’ motion would mean writing off a total of $24,924.93. Evans, Gurba and Adams voted in favour of the motion; Verhaeghe, Mayor Roger Morrill, Peckham and Coun. Steve Schafer were opposed.
