Ford won’t budge on speed camera ban, calls municipalities that want to keep them ‘greedy’

Speaking with reporters, Premier Ford said speed cameras are a ‘cash grab’ and infrastructure needs to be installed to deter speeders.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is resolute in his push to ban automated speed enforcement (ASE) cameras across the province, calling municipalities that want to keep them “greedy.”

During a news conference at Queen’s Park on Tuesday, Ford repeated that the cameras are “cash grabs,” insisting they aren’t effective in slowing drivers down, despite a recent study by SickKids and Toronto Metropolitan University that found that the equipment does work in curbing speeding.

“We have an alternative to put infrastructure in. But folks, they don’t want to do that. They want to continue to collect hundreds of millions of dollars and continue speeding. Let speeding happen. They aren’t worried about the safety of people. If they were, they’d start installing infrastructure,” the premier said.

“There’s 444 municipalities; 407 are saying we don’t want speed cameras. We’ll put infrastructure in to slow people down. And then there’s 37 greedy communities and cities and towns that want the cash grab,” he added.

In September, Ford announced that he would introduce legislation this month to ban ASE across the province. After removing the cameras that have been installed, municipalities would then be required to install large new warning signs by mid-November, with permanent flashing-light signage by fall 2026.

Ford said when the new traffic-calming measures, such as roundabouts and speed bumps, are in place, “no one will be speeding, 100 per cent.”

‘The answer is no’

Earlier on Tuesday, Ford wrote back to Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and Burlington Mayor Meed Ward, who sent a letter last week urging the premier not to implement a total ban on the cameras.

“The answer is no,” Ford wrote in his letter. “Our government is banning this municipal cash grab once and for all.”

Brown and Ward’s letter, which was signed by 18 other Ontario mayors, presented a compromise that would allow municipalities to continue using them in school zones.

“A total ban on ASE would reverse years of progress on safety in school zones. It would place more pressure on police, increase enforcement costs and most critically, endanger lives,” reads the letter addressed to Ford and Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria.

“We urge you to provide a carve out to allow municipalities to continue to deploy ASE in school zones and work with municipalities to improve understanding, effectiveness and community engagement around ASE in these areas.”

In his letter to Brown and Ward, Ford asserted the traffic-calming infrastructure measures his government would implement as “100 per cent effective” at slowing down drivers.

“The only thing municipal speed cameras are 100 per cent effective at is taking money from hard-working people,” Ford wrote in the letter.

Ford will cover costs to terminate contracts

Ford also responded to the mayors’ request that the province fully reimburse their municipalities for the costs they would incur in cancelling the ASE program.

“I encourage you to instead cover these costs by insisting that 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,” the premier wrote.

He criticized the mayors for being dependent on “ineffective speed cameras” and said they should have used the money to install “more proactive, effective and immediate traffic-calming measures.”

It was the Ford government that passed a law in 2019 that permitted municipalities to install the cameras.

While the province will not pay municipalities for the cost of removing the cameras, Ford said, “Ontario’s legislation will indemnify municipalities to derisk the termination of contracts that should never been signed in the first place.”

“Our government is prepared to help fund new signage and traffic-calming measures that will keep school zones safe. We are not prepared, however, to allow your municipal speed camera cash grab to continue,” the premier wrote.

With files from Jermaine Wilson