Existing
speed cameras in Ottawa
will continue to operate until Nov. 14, according to a memo to city council from public works general manager Alain Gonthier.
That’s when amendments to the Highway Traffic Act come into effect under Bill 56, including revoking the legal authority of municipalities to use automated speed enforcement in community safety zones and school zones, which will force the city to
turn off its existing cameras
.
The new legislation also places oversight for school zone signage under the authority of the Minister of Transportation. That includes granting the Minister of Transportation the authority to direct municipalities to install specific signs in school zones and set deadlines for compliance.
If a municipality fails to comply, the province may install the signs.
Gonthier said the city will work with the Ministry of Transportation to ensure compliance with provincial requirements, including expediting the installation of school zone signage.
Since 2019, over 700 municipal speed cameras have been installed in 40 municipalities across Ontario, said the Ministry of Transportation.
Ottawa initially installed eight cameras
at school sites in a 2020 pilot, which “demonstrated that automated speed enforcement is an effective countermeasure in targeting high-risk driver behaviour, successfully reducing speeds and in turn reducing the risks of fatal and major injury collisions,” according to a previous statement from Gonthier.
The city has since expanded the program to include 60 active cameras, including the 50 adjacent to schools.
On Oct. 7, Premier Doug Ford announced that his government was “
banning this municipal cash grab
once and for all.”
The provincial government passed legislation on Oct. 30 to ban speed cameras, promising to replace them with alternative traffic calming measures.
Ottawa’s automated enforcement program has collected $97.5 million in fines since it launched as a pilot program in 2020, according to a previous memo from Gonthier. Of that, the city has remitted $18.3 million to the province as the mandatory victim fine surcharge. Another $37.6 million has been used to operate and administer the program, and $41.6 million has been allocated to the city’s reserve for road safety initiatives.
None of the money has been allocated to the city’s general budget.
On Oct. 22, Ottawa
city councillors gave their unanimous endorsement
to a motion affirming support for the speed camera program and urging the Ontario government to tweak the system rather than banning the cameras across the province.
According to city data, only 16 per cent of drivers were complying with posted speed limits prior to the activation of speed cameras in 2020. Within three years, compliance increased to 81 per cent, and speeders driving more than 15 km/h above the posted limit dropped from 14 per cent to 0.7 per cent.
Ford has argued that speed cameras don’t work to slow drivers down and has argued that measures such as speed bumps, roundabouts and signs with flashing lights are more effective, but it’s unclear when those measures will be introduced.
“Ultimately, we’ll have temporary signage, larger signage that will be installed before the 14th in all of the…municipal speed camera-impacted zones,” Ford said at Queen’s Park last week.
“We’ll continue to work with municipalities on future funding throughout the next couple of weeks, on additional measures that they can take to improve traffic calming, he said, adding that there will be a new fund to help offset some of those costs. The province has not yet released the amount of the fund.
The city is working with the Ministry of Transportation to ensure compliance with provincial requirements, including expediting the installation of school zone signage, said Gonthier in his memo. Work is also underway to assess operational impacts, including effects on road safety, staffing, financial resources and implications for the 2026 budget, as well as other program considerations.
Updates are to be provided to councillors in the upcoming city budget and the road safety plan’s annual report, to be presented to the road works and infrastructure services committee in the first quarter of 2026, he said.
With Citizen news files
