City employees want council to lobby other municipalities to join in getting ICBC to provide bylaws staff with timelier information.

City community safety and enforcement manager Jon Wilson said Friday that ICBC has been unco-operative since last fall when it comes to providing information to bylaws staff about vehicles and their owners.

“If we write a ticket and someone doesn’t pay after 14 days, we have a ticket number we send to ICBC and they can send us information on the owner for us to follow up on collecting,” he said.

An officer on the street wanting information on the vehicle or owner isn’t getting it quickly anymore, he said.

The City and ICBC have an information-sharing agreement, but it seems as though ICBC has changed its side without notification to the City, Wilson said.

“We’re not clear on why they’re not co-operating. My understanding is there was a change in policy beyond ICBC’s control,” he said. Wilson said it’s believed CPIC, the Canadian Police Information Centre, is where the change was made.

He has heard some B.C. municipalities were getting their information from police and they have been redirected to ICBC. The additional demand is a problem.

“We have an information-sharing agreement with ICBC. But because of volume, they couldn’t do telephone inquiries. It’s caused the system to collapse.”

In a report to council, Wilson’s department is recommending the civic politicians ask the Union of B.C. Municipalities to request that Victoria get involved in solving the problem.

“We’ve experienced an impact. That’s why we’re writing the report,” Wilson said.

The information that bylaws staff need does come through eventually, but those officers end up waiting to follow up on their files, he said.

“Individual efforts by municipalities have not resulted in a resolution in a timely manner. So municipalities are looking to engage the UBCM to get the province involved to get this resolved.”

Communications staff at ICBC did not reply by deadline.