‘Sorry to see it go:’ City of Guelph says goodbye to speed camera program

Staff with the City of Guelph say they are ‘sorry to see’ the speed camera program end. CTV’s Jeff Pickel finds out what’s next.

Staff with the City of Guelph say they are sad to see the end of the Automated Speed Enforcement program.

“We started with four cameras that rotated through our school zones,” Steve Anderson, the city’s Director of Transportation, said. “We expanded to 12 cameras this August and we think it was pretty successful in Guelph. We’re sorry to see it go.”

The program is ending due to Bill 56, also known as the “Building a More Competitive Economy Act.” The omnibus bill included a provision to ban speed cameras across the province. The law officially comes into effect on Friday. The move repeals a decision from the Ford government in 2019 that allowed the cameras to be set up in municipalities. The cameras have been active in Guelph since 2023.

“When [the Automated Speed Enforcement program] started in August 2023, only one out of every three vehicle drivers going through school zones was at the posted speed limit. By September of this year, we had that up to 80 per cent, so four out of every five drivers, were now complying with the speed limits in school zones,” Anderson said.

The province has announced a $210 million Road Safety Initiatives Fund to “support increased road safety in school zones and community safety zones without using speed cameras that make life more expensive for drivers and taxpayers.”

The fund includes $42 million in immediate funding to support traffic-calming measures in school zones and community safety zones that previously had municipal speed cameras.

Next year, municipalities will need to apply for the rest of the funding to install safety measures like speed bumps and roundabouts.

“We’re quite eager to be knocking on the Premier’s door to be eligible for some of that money to help make our roads safer here in Guelph,” said Anderson.

Anderson, however, said there are some situations where traffic calming measures, such as speed bumps and roundabouts, don’t work.

“They’re not great on four lane arterial roads that see a lot of traffic and a lot of emergency response,” Anderson said.

The Region of Waterloo was not available for comment about the change on Thursday, other than to say they are reviewing Bill 56 and will have more to say at a later date.