VAUGHAN – Ontario will introduce legislation next month to ban the use of speed cameras across the province, Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday, framing it as an affordability measure.
Ford has been bemoaning the cameras in recent weeks as a “cash grab,” suggesting they don’t work to slow traffic and are only used by some municipalities to generate revenue.
“Governments need to be putting more money back into people’s pockets to help make their lives more affordable,” Ford said Thursday at the announcement in Vaughan, Ont.
“But unfortunately, too many governments are doing the opposite. They’re increasing taxes and taking more money out of people’s pockets. Over the last few years, we’ve seen municipalities across the province use municipal speed cameras as nothing more than a cash grab.”
Ford’s push against speed cameras comes a few weeks after 17 automated speed cameras were cut down in Toronto over two days, and the city’s mayor slammed the upcoming ban Thursday as wrong-headed.
“It signals to people that the provincial government is OK with speeding,” Olivia Chow said. “It will mean our roads are less safe.”
Ford believes traffic can be slowed down through alternate measures such as large signs with flashing lights, which the province will require municipalities that currently have cameras to use in school zones.
“Why do we have to charge people?” Ford said. “Why don’t we actually slow them down …rather than let them speed through a speed camera?”
Recent studies and municipal data, however, show that the cameras do reduce speeding.
A study from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and Toronto Metropolitan University found the cameras reduced speeding by 45 per cent in Toronto.
A staff report earlier this month from Brampton said the city saw an average speed reduction of more than nine kilometres per hour across speed camera locations. Mississauga reported similar results. Five camera locations in Brampton saw reductions of more than 20 kilometres per hour, the staff report said.
Ford said the fact that tickets continue to be issued, including 65,000 from a single camera in Toronto, is evidence they don’t work.
“Speed cameras don’t slow people down, or they’d have zero tickets if they slowed them down,” the premier said. “Instead, we’re seeing hundreds of thousands of tickets. That’s the proof in the pudding, right there.”
The government says municipalities will also be encouraged to use speed bumps, raised crosswalks and roundabouts.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2025.
