Province Approves Write-offs for 2008-09

The province is writing off $10.2 million in debts that were considered unpaid or uncollectible at March 31, 2008.

"Write-offs are a normal part of doing business and this is routine accounting for the 2008-2009 fiscal year," said Finance Minister Graham Steele. "All of the decisions underlying these write-offs were made under the previous government."

Twelve government departments have items that will be written off. The largest amounts relate to a $5-million writedown under the Industrial Expansion Fund to better reflect the market value of the Trenton Works facility and $2.4 million for unpaid student loans.

Debts are written off when it is determined that they are unlikely to be paid, in cases of personal or commercial bankruptcy, death of the individual debtor and property foreclosure. Very small debts may be written off if it would cost too much to attempt to collect the debt.

Even though an amount may be written off from an accounting point of view, government may continue its efforts to collect some of the debts, particularly in the case of unpaid fines.

A list of the write-offs is available at www.gov.ns.ca/finance .