Provinces look to Saskatchewan on how to collect millions more for victims of crime

W5: Landlord Scam | Part Four W5's Jon Woodward investigates how Saskatchewan has been able to collect 71 per cent of the restitution ordered in the last five years.

A W5 investigation showed how convicted criminals ordered to pay restitution struggled to do so, and how just $7 million of more than $250 million had been confirmed to be claimed. Many provinces struggle to keep track, but Saskatchewan is leading the way in making sure victims receive their money.

In the wake of a W5 investigation that showed how hundreds of millions of dollars that convicted criminals have been ordered to return to their victims may be going unpaid, critics are calling to improve collections.

Some $255 million in restitution orders were made over the past five years from coast to coast, an investigation by W5 showed, and just $7 million could be confirmed to have been collected.

Many provinces don’t even keep track of these numbers, and victims are often left to contact the convicts themselves or try to take them to civil court. The repayment rate in those provinces is in the single digits.

But in Saskatchewan, it’s a different story. In the province, a group of four dedicated civil servants do keep track, and persistently call the convicts, politely requesting repayment.

Of the $3.5 million in restitution orders in that province in the past five years, $2.5 million were collected, a return rate of 71 per cent.

“We’re very proud of that,” Karen Closs, the assistant director of victims services in Saskatchewan, told CTV News.

Closs says many convicts do want to pay their orders – and their debt to society – as long as they’re asked.

“I think most people, you know, they are generally willing once our staff contact them, they just want to pay what they can afford to,” she said in an interview.

It’s an approach that’s relatively rare in Canada. Only four provinces — Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia — have government programs that assist victims in getting paid beyond the usual enforcement measures in the justice system.

Alberta says they got about $563,000 since 2020, while orders there totalled $13.8 million.

In B.C., the program returned about $400,000 in a similar time period, though officials couldn’t say how many orders had been issued or their dollar value.

In Nova Scotia, of the $15.9 million awarded, only $1.3 million was confirmed repaid, a rate of about eight per cent.

At $213 million, the lion’s share of restitution orders were written in Ontario, although the province couldn’t say how much of that had been returned.

Kristyn Wong-Tam, Ontario’s NDP critic for the Attorney General, says the province should be looking to Saskatchewan for ideas about how to make sure victims of crimes are getting their due.

“If Saskatchewan has a more solid record of recovery of funds for restitution to compensate those victims of crime, then it’s certainly something we should explore,” Wong-Tam told W5 in an interview.

If the country’s repayment rate matched Saskatchewan’s, there would have been nearly $181 million returned to victims of crime since 2020.

Ontario’s solicitor-general, Michael Kerzner, told W5 last week he would talk to the province’s attorney-general about the issue.

Earlier this year, Joseph Myers, a Saskatchewan businessman who pleaded guilty to defrauding customers in his windows and doors business, actually paid his $229,000 restitution on the spot.

“It’s nice to know sometimes justice is served,” Sarah Turnbull, one of his jilted customers, told CTV News last July.

She was one of 52 victims who got their money back quickly – something the Crown prosecutor acknowledged was extremely rare.

“I don’t see it often in my experience,” said Yako Erasmus at the time.

Nationally, he’s right. While Myers’ victims were made whole immediately, most convicts appear to need more convincing.

For story tips, please email Jon Woodward ([e-mail])