Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 31/05) - A Yellowknife resident is seeing red after bylaw officers hauled him off in handcuffs for an unpaid seatbelt ticket.

Ry Forest forgot to pay the $115 ticket - issued by an RCMP in May, 2003 - for failing to wear a seatbelt, but said the response seemed extreme.

Ry Forest, who was handcuffed and arrested earlier this month over an unpaid seatbelt ticket, wants information on outstanding fines to go to motor vehicle licensing branch.

He was driving his sister-in-law to a job-training course Aug. 16 when bylaw officers stopped him on Old Airport Road for another seatbelt offence.

It was the first time Forest had ever been arrested, and he wonders if he would've been saved the humiliation if the NWT motor vehicle licensing branch kept information on unpaid tickets.

Forest said that since the first ticket was issued two years ago, he has renewed his driver's licence, and insured and registered his vehicle.

No one reminded him that he had an outstanding fine - a common practice in B.C. and Alberta where he lived before moving to Yellowknife.

"If you get a speeding ticket, parking tickets even, anything like that - it shows up on your file," he said.

"You pay your tickets, done. I don't know how it gets to the point where they throw you in handcuffs for a simple parking ticket you forget to pay."

When he visited the territorial courthouse later to check on the first ticket and fine, Forest said he was told he didn't owe anything.

It required two visits to City Hall to find information on the ticket, which was buried in the basement archives.

In the end, he was allowed to walk away without paying a fine.

"I think there's a complete breakdown in the system," said Forest. "I feel I've gone through all the systems properly. I forgot to do one thing, and nothing showed up that I owed this money."

Fines are only registered with the motor vehicles branch after they've been paid off, said Kelley Merilees-Keppel, acting manager of driver and vehicle licensing programs for the NWT.

"Not to my knowledge," she said when asked if her department was considering a move to provide information on outstanding traffic tickets supplied to the motor vehicles branch. "I'm not even sure it's been addressed."

Other places, other plans

Yellowknifer found six jurisdictions, including the Yukon, which demand payment of outstanding traffic fines before driver's licences or vehicle registration can be renewed.

Sgt. Michael Payne of the Yellowknife RCMP detachment said his department would love to see the territorial government follow suit.

He said "oodles and oodles" of traffic citations go unpaid in the NWT because there is little to stop ticket scofflaws from renewing their licences.

Payne said too often, it's only after someone has been pulled over for another offence, and threatened with jail, that outstanding fines are paid.

Jail risk continues

"It's something we would like to raise with the GNWT," said Payne. "It would certainly be a time-saver for us - all the paperwork and tracking these folks down."

Doug Gillard, manager of municipal enforcement, also said it's about time the NWT got with the program.

For now, he said, people who don't pay their traffic tickets will continue risking a trip to jail.

Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay said he plans to raise the issue in the legislative assembly this fall.

"It really is a sad story," he said.