City not issuing photo radar to out of province drivers

Photo radar only fines Alta. licence plates Documents obtained by CTV News show fines are only given to drivers with Alberta licence plates. CTV Edmonton’s Jonathan Glasgow reports.

According to documents obtained by CTV News, the City of Edmonton is charging millions of dollars in fines for speeding or running a red light, but only to drivers with an Alberta licence plate.

Cameras to catch drivers speeding or failing to stop at red lights dot roadsides throughout Edmonton, and the tickets issued translated to $51.264 million in revenue for the city in 2017.

However, as CTV News has learned, tickets were only issued to drivers with Alberta licence plates.

A statement issued by the city following a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy request found between January 1, 2017 and September 13, 2018, 59,704 vehicles with out-of-province plates were recorded speeding on photo radar – and they did not receive tickets.

The minimum fine for speeding in Edmonton is $93. A conservative estimate would leave the city with about $5.5 million in lost potential revenue (if all of the tickets were for the minimum fine).

The City said it doesn’t issue tickets to vehicles with out-of-province plates because the Office of Traffic Safety doesn’t have access to data for vehicle registration data from outside the province as that information is controlled by provincial authorities.

Officials in other jurisdictions do not have the same limitations.

The City of Edmonton admitted automated enforcement in Calgary and Saskatoon is run by the respective police on each area, and they have access to information from other provinces through the Canadian Police Information Centre.

A spokesperson for Calgary Police said “under provincial legislation, tickets are issued to the registered owner of the vehicle, and can be issued to owners registered out of province.”

Officials in Vancouver, Regina and Winnipeg can also issue photo radar tickets to drivers in vehicles from other provinces.

A spokesperson with Edmonton’s Parks and Road Services department said automated enforcement is “proven to reduce speeding and collisions in Edmonton, and its primary purpose is to increase traffic safety, not generate fine revenue.”

The limitations on information from outside of Alberta are not just limited to photo radar tickets, the City said it doesn’t have access to the same information related to collisions, which could give officials insight into collision risk.

“We’re continuing to explore our options in how we can access this information for enforcement purposes,” the City spokesperson said.

As for vehicles owned by people who live in Edmonton, and still have a licence plate from another province, the owner has 90 days to switch insurance, licence, and registration from the first day they move to Alberta.

With files from Jonathan Glasgow