‘It’s just a tax grab’: Ford urges municipalities to put the brakes on speed cameras

Ontario’s Premier is telling municipalities to put the brakes on speed camera programs. CTV’s Ashley Bacon explains why.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is taking a stand against speed enforcement cameras.

While speaking at an unrelated event hosted by the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Tuesday, Ford spoke out against the cameras and claimed, “It’s just a tax grab.”

He indicated the province could step in if local municipalities are not willing to voluntarily remove the devices.

“Hopefully the cities will get rid of them like Mayor Del Duca in Vaughan, or I’m going to help them get rid of them very shortly,” Ford said.

The comments were in response to the destruction of 17 speed cameras in Toronto on Monday night.

In 2017, the province gave municipalities the power to set up and run speed cameras in community safety or school zones. Many areas, including Waterloo Region and Guelph, began implementing programs in the name of public safety.

Guelph currently has a dozen cameras operating within the city.

“[We’ve recorded] anywhere between 14 to 19 per cent reduction in speeding over the course of a year where [speed cameras] are located in those 12 different areas,” Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie said.

He believes municipalities and the province may be able to find a compromise.

“I think there’s a meet-in-the-middle moment here for everyone, including the premier, to say, ‘Hey, if you can’t do this, if you’re going to do it, they have to be in community safety zones.’ They have to be around schools, like here in Guelph.”

However, the speed cameras in Guelph have met some opposition.

In August, cameras in front of St. Paul Catholic School on Clairfields Drive East and near Sir Isaac Brock Public School on Colonial Drive were tipped over.

“I’m dead against this”

The premier suggested additional signs and enhanced enforcement were his preferred methods for slowing down drivers.

“I have an idea – why don’t we pay a police officer with a radar gun there every once in a while,” Ford said. “It’ll be radar trap and people will slow down. To put this photo radar, and some people are driving in the neighbourhood and they’re five, 10 kilometres over – they’re getting nailed. It’s not fair. I’m dead against this photo radar that they have.”

Ford also told reporters during the Toronto Region Board of Trade event that he believes there are better ways to increase public safety.

“I’m all about public safety,” he reiterated. “I’m against taxing the death out of people.”

“If you want to slow down traffic in school [zones], you put the big, huge signs, big flashing lights – ‘crossing area.’ People will slow down,” Ford said.

Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras are triggered by speed sensors that take photographs of a vehicle’s licence plate. The owner of the vehicle is responsible for the fine, regardless of who was driving the vehicle at the time of the infraction.

ASE cameras can be found near schools and in residential neighbourhoods throughout Guelph and Waterloo Region. Both municipalities have previously stated they are not trying to generate funds through the use of speed cameras and, instead, any surplus money is put into a reserve fund to be used for other road safety initiatives.