A Vancouver lawyer says fines for panhandling like the one now in effect in Salmon Arm is essentially a tax on the poor.
Acumen Law’s Kyla Lee says it is “backward thinking” from municipalities, while also deterring people in need who are trying to earn a living by panhandling.
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“If you have these people who are earning this off the books, untaxed income from panhandling, the city has no means of collecting from them, particularly if they are people who are transient who don’t have any fixed address,” she said. “It’s difficult to compel them into some type of a bylaw hearing and then impose those sanctions.”
Lee adds the courts are also reluctant to impose fines on people who have no means of paying up.
“Because it is impossible to do that. You see places where people get numerous tickets for panhandling, and they just never pay them, and it just becomes a forever debt that’s owed to the city that holds people back from moving on in their lives and from advancing and becoming contributing members of society.”
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