The city admits it made a $160,000 mistake when it failed to collect fees from 32 south end home owners years ago but that the money is no longer recoverable.
A staff report, presented at Monday's meeting of city council said that there's not much that can be done now on both a legal and practical basis to try and recoup the losses.
Steps have been taken to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again, Deputy CAO Scott Stewart said after Monday's meeting.
"We can't go back," he said, "but it definitely couldn't happen again.
"We can't reach back in the past but we can keep our eye on the future."
No member of council commented during the open session on the report, which was discussed in camera prior to the council meeting.
There were no also citizen delegations on the matter at Monday's meeting.
The homes in question are located on Lowes Road and Dawn Avenue and the work in question refers to extending municipal water service (in 1977) and sanitary sewer service (in 2002) to those homes.
"Although it was initially intended that all construction costs would be recovered from the benefiting properties through frontage charges, there were several key steps in the process that were missed by staff at the time," reads the city report.
"Consequently only 28 of 31 original properties paid water main costs and only three of 32 original properties paid sanitary sewer costs."
The report said the city realized the costs were "uncollectible" in 2012 following a staff review and legal advice.
The issue came to light then as a result of inquiries related to a pending sale.
It was brought to council's attention recently after complaints from citizens.
Stewart said the issue isn't those that paid, it's the ones that didn't pay. But legal issues, including statute of limitations, plus practical issues regarding homeowners at the time, mean the fees can no longer be collected.
Stewart said it was a systematic issue that led to the mistake, not one decision by an individual.
"There were a lot of departments that touched this file," Stewart said, something the staff report backs up by stating "there were no illegal actions taken by staff related to this matter."
Stewart said new protocols have been put in place to make sure it doesn't happen again.
