Many municipalities have invested time and resources in speed cameras and believe that they are an effective safety tool in their communities. The mayors of Midland and Guelph, along with one municipal official, want to set the record straight that ASE’s are an effective safety tool, not a revenue generator.

“Want to stop a program? Fine. Want to disparage cities like Guelph while you do it? Not fine,” wrote Cam Guthrie, the mayor of Guelph on X. “It’s not a cash grab. If it was, then it was the provinces cash grab because they’re the ones who started the program and set the regulations for what fines could be imposed for people breaking the law. Breaking the law and getting a fine isn’t a cash grab.”

In a post on his website titled “Speed Camera Follies,” Gordon attempted to dispel some of the rhetoric about how the program works.

He believes that speed cameras work, and that the program should be tweaked — with mandates on what the ticket issuing speed threshold should be — and not scrapped. He’s a former police officer who admits he usually sides with the premier, and has spoken to him about what he thinks should be done.

Gordon bristles at being characterized by Ford as a “money grabbing” mayor because he says he’s using a safety tool that is approved by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and has the backing of the Ontario Association of Police Chiefs.

“I’ll tell you my eyes were rolling watching that announcement,” he said of Ford’s press conference announcing the plan last week.

The cameras have drawn the ire of Ford and also vandals, as another speed camera was cut down at the corner of Bloor Street West and Forest View Road last Saturday. That brings the number of speed cameras that have been cut down to 21 in the month of September.

Toronto Police are still investigating the other incidents, which include 16 cut down in one night and another three over one weekend. The Parkside Drive camera alone has been cut down 7 times since last November.

Where does the money go?

Proponents insist the speed camera programs are safety tools aimed at changing driver behaviour. Municipalities are on the hook to pay for the programs, and there are administration and processing fees. If the cameras do their job, people should speed less over time, so the camera will issue less tickets and communities will collect less money from the fines.

Ford said that only 37 of Ontario’s 444 communities had speed cameras at the time of his announcement, but there are several that were in the process of initiating their programs.

Midland has two speed cameras that came online earlier this month and both are already proving effective, issuing more than 1,600 tickets in just 17 days.

Gordon said the province also stands to lose money by scrapping the program.

One of the biggest beneficiary of funds from speed camera tickets is the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG), which collects about 20 per cent from every ticket issued across the province on a sliding scale as part of the victim fine surcharge fee. The money collected goes to the Victims’ Justice fund, to help people after they have been affected by a crime. Municipalities must pay every month, regardless of whether or not the tickets are disputed or unpaid.

The faster people speed, the bigger the fine, and the more money that goes to the municipality and to the province. For the largest fines, MAG gets a 25 per cent cut.

As well, there is an $8.25 licence plate lookup fee for every ticket that is collected by the Ministry of Transportation (MTO).

“There is no justification for an $8.25 cash grab that goes to the MTOs coffers. It’s literally a computer-to-computer search that takes seconds,” said Gordon.

So while the premier is calling the ASE programs a municipal tax grab, the provincial ministries also collect a chunk of money every time a ticket is issued. Municipalities only get money from the infractions that occur in their area.

The Star first reached out to the Ministry of the Attorney General last Monday asking for specific information about how much money has been collected over the past five years, and followed up multiple times, but did not receive a response by publication. It is unclear how much money the Victims’ Justice fund stands to lose with the cancellation of the speed camera programs.

Cost of traffic calming measures unclear

While the programs can provide municipal funds, they also come with a lot of costs, a manager of traffic programs for one of the municipalities with an ASE program said. The Star is granting them anonymity so they can speak about the details without facing professional repercussions.

“About $20 of every ticket goes to processing fees and mailing the ticket. Ten dollars goes to leasing for the camera vendors, $20 goes to the administrative costs for staffing for hearings, screening officers and other staff. The rest gets reinvested into the program and municipal road safety infrastructure,” the manager said with the caveat that every municipality is different.

The Star has reviewed a confidential fiscal breakdown of the speed camera program in one municipality, showing it generated a net profit of only two to three per cent.

The manager added they know of only one municipality that tickets below a double digit speed threshold at 6 kph or less.

“Honestly, it’s not cost effective to ticket someone that low,” the manager said.

Gordon declined to disclose the exact threshold for Midland, but said it’s a double digit number, so at least 10 km/h.

To replace the speed cameras, Ford touted large signs with flashing lights, some blinking the word “THANKS” for people obeying the speed limit. The cost associated with the rollout of those new measures is unclear.

“Flashing beacons cost about $5k to $7k each. Two are needed for each direction per school, while the cameras rotate every few months. I don’t think the province has the money to fund $10k for every school across the ASE municipal partners,” said the manager.

The Ontario government says it’s creating a fund to pay for the new traffic calming measures, but did not say how much it would cost or where the money would be coming from.

Ford also said that municipalities had “not spent $1” on road safety with the funds from speed cam tickets. Gordon disputes that.

“All these expensive things that he proudly displayed as if he was presenting sliced bread for the first time, are things that we’ve been using for the past 10 to 15 years in our community. We even have a roundabout,” said Gordon.

He was looking forward to installing more signs and other traffic calming measures in his town with the funds from the ASE program.

Many Ontario mayors, including those of Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton and Ottawa, along with the lobby group for all 444 mayors, are urging Ford to compromise rather than put pedestrians and cyclists at increased risk of serious injury or death.

Scrapping speed camera contracts come at a cost

There will be costs incurred by abruptly cancelling the programs, from contracts with vendors of the systems and also the companies that process the tickets.

The Star asked Redflex Traffic Systems — the $36-million vendor contracted to maintain Toronto’s cameras until 2029 — what will happen if Ontario repeals the legislation, but the company said it would not speculate until full details are released.

“The City of Toronto is aware of the announcement made by Premier Doug Ford banning automated speed enforcement cameras. We are monitoring the developments and will assess the impacts that the final legislation has on our program,” said Kate Lear, a spokesperson for the city of Toronto, when asked about the financial implications of cancelling the ASE program.

Gordon said the town of Midland must continue paying the $200,000 contract to the vendor until the legislation takes effect, after which it could likely be terminated under a force majeure clause, which covers circumstances beyond a party’s control.

York Regional Council has already passed a motion asking for the province to cover their investment in the ASE program, other municipalities may follow suit. Brampton has invested heavily in their ASE program, including $46 million in a ticket processing centre that opened in September 2024. The mayor and city councillors are trying to get some of that money reimbursed by the province.

As for what will happen to the speed cameras in Ontario’s municipalities, they are owned and operated by the vendors and would likely be removed quickly. After the city of Vaughan banned speed cameras, the 10 city-run cameras were removed in a matter of days.

Ford mused on Monday about possibly trying to repurpose the speed cameras to do other kinds of surveillance in high crime communities, describing cameras that can read license plates and notify police about stolen vehicles. The speed cameras are owned by the vendors and with the current legislation cannot be hooked up to a license plate database — one reason there is an MTO charge for each plate look up. Police across the province, including in Toronto, already use automatic license plate reader camera technologies.