Ontario Premier Doug Ford has denied a request from more than 20 mayors across the province to tweak instead of scrap the speed camera program, vowing to eliminate speeding through other measures.
The mayors, led by Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, say a total ban on automated speed cameras would reverse years of progress on safety in school zones and place more pressure on police.
But Ford says they are nothing more than a cash grab and the fact that they continue to issue tickets shows they are “failing miserably” at slowing drivers down.
He told the mayors in a letter Tuesday that from 2020 to 2024, the number of fines issued by speed cameras in Ontario grew by nearly nine times, with a total of more than $52 million.
“Clearly, if the point of speed cameras is to slow down drivers, they are failing miserably,” Ford wrote. “They’re cash grabs, pure and simple.”
The cities and towns that want to keep the cameras are “greedy,” Ford said, because if they actually wanted to deter speeders they would put in speed bumps and roundabouts on problematic roads.
“We know speed cameras do not work,” he said. “I have an idea that we’re putting forward. We’re going to put traffic-calming infrastructure (in), and that will bring it down to zero.”
Ford government says it will ban speed cameras across Ontario
Data from several municipalities that have analyzed the effect of the cameras on traffic speeds, as well as a study from the Hospital for Sick Children and Toronto Metropolitan University, show speeds are reduced.
Meed Ward said Ford’s move to scrap the program would mean that municipal and provincial taxpayers are funding the cost of road safety improvements, instead of the speeders themselves.
“I think it’s a reasonable ask to make speeders pay,” she said in an interview.
“I think it’s reasonable to give some relief to good drivers and law-abiding residents, not having to pay for traffic calming and most important, this will save lives. It will save the lives of our children. So, I am mystified why that is hard to get behind, but I will keep asking.”
The mayors suggested Ford could amend the program, for example ensuring that cameras are only in school zones, that they are only operational during school hours, and that he set a minimum speed that would trigger a fine.
“If you’re hit by a car at 30 kilometres (per hour), you have a 90 per cent chance of survival,” Meed Ward said.
“If you’re hit by one at 50 — and we know people go those speeds through school zones — your survivability drops to 20 per cent. Surely to goodness, the cost of a ticket for speeding, which is breaking the law, is not as important as the priceless life of a child.”
The mayors had also asked the provincial government to fully reimburse municipalities for lost speed camera revenues that were being used for traffic calming, staff severance costs and increases in municipal policing costs.
Ford said the province will indemnify municipalities for the termination of speed camera contracts, but appeared to shoot down Ontario footing any bills other than a fund the premier has already promised for the alternative traffic-calming measures.
“Regarding your request for funding to cover the cost of cancelling your municipal speed camera programs, I encourage you to instead cover these costs by insisting that the speed camera operators do so or by making use of the tens of millions of dollars that you have taken from hard-working people through these speed camera programs over the last several years,” Ford wrote.
