Government Approves Writeoffs for 2018-19

The province is writing off $23.9 million in debts considered uncollectable as of March 31.

Writeoffs are a standard accounting practice. Debts are written off each year when it is determined they are unlikely to be paid for reasons such as personal or commercial bankruptcy, death of the debtor, or property foreclosure. Even though a debt is written off, efforts will continue to collect debts where possible.

In 2018-19, writeoffs included uncollectable amounts from nine departments for items such as uncollectable fines, seniors’ pharmacare and student loans. Provisions for these debts were made in previous fiscal years and will have no impact on departmental budgets or Nova Scotia’s bottom-line in 2018-19.

A fact sheet listing all departmental writeoffs is available at https://beta.novascotia.ca/documents/summary-departmental-write-offs-2018-2019 .