Speed enforcement cameras officially banned across Ontario

Vehicles pass a speed camera in Toronto, on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

Speed enforcement cameras across the province have officially stopped issuing tickets after more than five years of use and millions of dollars in fines.

The cameras are no longer permitted to issue tickets as of today after Premier Doug Ford called them a “cash grab” and passed legislation banning them province-wide despite strong opposition from city mayors and experts.

On Thursday, the province said it would invest $210 million to support increased road safety in school and community zones instead.

The province said the measures would include traffic-calming infrastructure like speed bumps, raised crosswalks and roundabouts, as well as high visibility signage and increased police enforcement in school zones and community safety zones where municipal speed cameras were previously located.

“There’s an immediate release of $42 million to all municipalities, of which the city of Toronto gets $10 million today … the remaining amount will be given out to the municipalities once they produce a plan to the province of how they will effectively manage these school zones,” Ministry of Transportation Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria told CTV News Toronto on Friday.

The new initiatives align with results from a new province-wide poll by Abacus Data also released on Thursday that found half of Ontarians (50 per cent) prefer traffic calming measures such as speed bumps, raised crosswalks, signage, roundabouts and increased police enforcement over automated speed cameras.

The poll found that one in three (33 per cent) expressed a preference for automated cameras, while 17 per cent said they are unsure.

City mayors and experts have criticized the province’s move to ban the cameras, saying it’s a setback for road safety in the province.

“What we know is that speed cameras really make the roads safer,” Matti Siemiatycki, the director of University of Toronto’s Infrastructure Institute, said in an interview with CTV Your Morning last month.

“The stats show that speeding is reduced, that collisions are reduced, even fatalities are reduced. So, this is an important part of the overall package to make our roads safer.”

He believes speed cameras should remain part of a broader traffic safety strategy, one that also includes transparency, signage, and accountability for how fine revenue is used. He added that implementing traffic calming measures would be ideal because many roads are designed to feel like mini highways.

Research by The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto found that automated speed enforcement cameras reduced the number of speeding vehicles by 45 per cent in urban school zones.

“Speed is the single most important factor in pedestrian injury risk,” Dr. Andrew Howard, head of orthopaedic surgery and senior scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences program at SickKids, said. “This study shows that automated speed enforcement cameras can be an effective way to reduce that risk, especially in areas where children are most vulnerable.”

In a statement to CTV News Toronto last month, the City of Toronto also defended the program, stressing that its purpose is not revenue but safety.

However, Mayor Olivia Chow said in a social media post on Friday that the cameras “helped pay for over 900 crossing guards and 18 police officers.”

“Frontline workers who make roads safer, paid for by speeders. The province should cover the cost to keep these workers on our streets,” she said.

Sarkaria said the City of Toronto has had crossing guards before they had speed cameras, and added speed fines should not be intended to pay for essential workers.

“I think it just underscores that the city was using this as a cash grab in areas to capture as many tickets as possible, to fine many as people as possible, when the intended goal of this should be safety and reducing speeds in those very critical zones,” Sarkaria said.

“We’ve got to find real solutions that actually work, not solutions that are just a cash grab for residents across the city and the province.”

A spokesperson for the City of Toronto told CTV News Toronto on Friday that its cameras are set to be removed starting Friday in accordance with provincial legislation.

Any tickets issued prior to Friday will still be valid and must be paid or disputed, the spokesperson stated.

The spokesperson said that signs marking school zones will be installed where permanent cameras used to be.

RELATED STORIES:

• Chow asks province to cover cost of crossing guards, traffic safety cops previously paid for by speed camera fines
• ‘Sorry to see it go:’ City of Guelph says goodbye to speed camera program
• Ontario invests $210M in traffic calming measures to replace speed cameras