Have you ever wondered what the fine amounts are for breaches of Provincial Statutes and how the fines are set?
They are set by the province and published in the form of regulations.
The Regulations create ‘fine categories’ and each category has a money amount attached to it. This simplifies things for Judges when they assess fines. For example: there are offences under different Provincial Statutes such as the Highway Traffic Act and the Liquor Control Act that fall under the same category for fine purposes. Generally speaking Categories A to F deal with offences committed by individuals while Categories G to J deal with offences committed by business owners or corporations.
Examples of offences in each category
Category A – fail to produce a driver’s licence
Category B – Drive left of dividing line
Category C – Fail to yield right of way
Category D – Disobey a traffic control device
Category E – Have or keep liquor in a vehicle other than authorized
Category F Drive an unregistered vehicle
Category G – Sell liquor other than authorized (boot legging)
Category H – Transport hazardous waste without a licence
Category I – Fail to report an environmental accident
Category J – Sell, buy, trade or barter the meat of a wild animal
The Province of Manitoba recently published the amended Summary Conviction Act Regulation that lays out fines for offences against Provincial Statutes. Table 1 (below) shows the 10 offence categories with category A offences being the least serious and Category J offences being the most serious.
The table shows that the actual base fines range between $37.00 for Category A offences all the way up to $1467.00 for Category J offences. That is just the basic fine though. To that you must add the various surcharges like court costs (45% of the base fine), the Victim Service Surcharge (20% of the base fine), and the Justice Services Surcharge (a flat rate of $50.00 per offence). Once all the surcharges are added the fines persons convicted must pay are $110.00 for Category A offences and $2470.00 for Category J offences. The table also shows how the fine revenue is broken down between the Province and the City. As indicated for the offences with lower fines, the Province takes a bigger cut and as the fines increase the City’s cut increases.
Table 1 Offence Category Table
|Offence Category||Base Fine||Court Costs||Victim Services Surcharge||Justice Services Surcharge||Total||City Portion %||Provincial Portion %|
Source: Table 1 was constructed with information obtained from the Province of Manitoba, and the Winnipeg Police Service.
For clarity and ease of reference the fine amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar and the split between the Province and the City to the nearest %.
Unlike other offences the fines for speeding offences are dynamic, i.e. they increase as the speed goes up. The basic fine for speeding is $7.70 per kilometre over the posted speed limit. Tickets are not normally issued until the threshold of 10 KPH over the speed limit is reached. Speeding offences that are committed in construction zones (when workers are present) are subject to a further $5.00 per kilometre surcharge for a total of $12.70 for each kilometre per hour over the posted speed limit. Table 2 shows the fine breakdown based on 5 specific speeds.
Table 2 Speeding Offences Table
|KPH over limit||Base Fine||Court Costs||Victim Services Surcharge||Justice Services Surcharge||Total||City Portion||Provincial Portion %|
Source: information compiled based on information contained in the Manitoba Summary Convictions Act (Regulations)
Note: All numbers rounded up to nearest dollar/per centage.
Now you know.