Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his government is looking to change how automated speed enforcement (ASE) cameras are deployed as the devices are being used as a budgetary source, something he calls “a little unfair.”
During an unrelated news conference at Wasaga Beach on Friday, CityNews asked about multiple changes to the Highway Traffic Act involving ASE cameras, red-light cameras and community safety zones briefly alluded to at the end of the 2025 Ontario budget tabled at Queen’s Park on Thursday.
“The city is using it as their revenue source, and it’s a little unfair. They hide them all over the place and if you’re going, you know, 10 kilometres an hour over, you’re getting dinged. So it’s a real revenue opposed to safety,” Ford said.
“Everyone should be crawling through a school zone, but they’re putting them all over the place and they’re creating endless amounts of money.
“People aren’t too happy when they get dinged for 10 kilometres over, five kilometres over. It’s a revenue tool.”
It wasn’t immediately clear why the Ford government opted to include these changes in the budget and many details were still unknown as of Friday, but the bill tabled in the Ontario legislature focused on several things:
- Payments between municipalities and vendors can’t allow payments to vendors based on the number of tickets generated by cameras
- Ontario’s transportation minister “may direct a municipality” to change how ASE, red-light camera systems operate
- The minister may require municipalities to provide information on cameras (unclear what information is being sought)
- Municipalities will be required to publish ASE, red-light camera locations and to display signs
- Creating the power to “prescribe circumstances in which an offence notice, [summons] or administrative penalty shall not be issued” for offences and contraventions when evidence is received by ASEs
- Creating the ability to issue regulations governing municipal councils and the ability to designate community safety zones (officials told CityNews it would be a list of criteria, but details weren’t provided)
“So all we’re saying is not to take them away — I don’t like them — but let’s put signs up,” Ford said.
“The whole purpose of a radar trap is to slow people down, so let’s slow people down by putting big signs that there’s a radar ahead and we’ll go from there.”
Despite comments by Ford and officials, regulations governing ASE warning signs already exist on Ontario’s books.
During the Ford government’s first term in office, a regulation published in late 2019 required municipalities using ASEs to put up white-and-black signs not smaller than 60 by 75 centimetres warning that cameras are being used.
According to the Highway Traffic Act, ASEs can only be deployed in community safety zones where the speed limit is less than 80 km/h and in school zones. Both are currently imposed through municipal bylaws.
Community safety zones were created by the provincial government to designate roads and highways where speeding fines can be doubled.
Specifics on the extent of the disclosure requirements weren’t included, but a quick review of the City of Toronto website, for example, showed a map of camera locations.
Ontario mayor rejects Ford’s speed enforcement cameras criticism
John Creelman, the mayor of the Town of Mono (just east of Orangeville) and a retired Ontario justice of the peace, said his municipality is just about to start using ASEs.
“I’ve conducted a number of public meetings, well attended, and I’ve asked the audience, ‘Would you object to the use of this technology, you know, if it meant that our roads would be safer? And quite frankly, virtually everyone agrees that they would be an addition,” Creelman told CityNews Friday afternoon.
“Literature from around the world indicates that they do have an impact. It is a positive impact, and the government is fully aware of this. It’s been brought to their attention many, many times.
“We cannot afford the $150-180,000 per police officer that we would have to hire in order to get traffic safety down to a safe point in our community.”
When asked about Ford’s comments, he took issue with the assertions made.
“He’s of course parroting all of the negatives about automated speed enforcement, which I prefer to call safety cameras,” Creelman said.
“It is not a cash cow because it in no way offsets the cost of policing.
“He’s dead wrong in the assertion that they’re hidden all over the place. There are strict regulations that require signage in advance of an automated speed enforcement camera or a red light camera. You know exactly where they are.”
Creelman went on to say he believes the current regulations don’t fit rural municipalities. He said countryside roads can have speed limits 80 km/h and higher and that there is “egregious speeding.”
“You can’t even use automated speed enforcement because the cut off is 79 kilometres per hour, so in order to use it, you would have to reduce the speed limit and then you would have to declare a community safety zone in a location where it’s not warranted,” Creelman said.
“Nobody ever explained to me why the rules are what they are, but (those are) definitely discriminatory against rural Ontario.”
He acknowledged some municipalities have too low of a threshold for when tickets are issued, which is something he said could be “easily addressed.”
Creelman gave two areas where changes could be made to address public concerns. The first would be simplifying signage.
“In my view, the simplest sign to put up is one at the entrance of every town or city which says, ‘This is an area that deploys safety cameras, drive accordingly,’ in which case you don’t have to worry about signs of a particular size located X number of feet from each other,” he said.
The second suggestion was allowing cameras to be installed in areas without community safety zone designations and the associated double fines, which makes buy-in more difficult.
“The province is once again trying to play mayor of Ontario instead of doing its job to promote road safety,” Creelman said.
“For a government that prides itself in cutting red tape and simplifying legislation, they seem to be going the opposite direction.”
Judy Dezell is a director with Local Authority Services (LAS), a non-profit organization run by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario aimed at running programs to reduce municipal operating expenses.
She said her organization works with around 90 per cent of Ontario’s municipalities (mostly made up of small- and medium-sized towns and cities) to help run automated speed enforcement programs.
Dezell said she didn’t know the changes were included as part of the budget and that they need more information from the Ontario government.
“It’ll change, perhaps, the business models for some of the vendors that are operating within the province, but I think from our perspective the most important thing is the fact that we’re focused on safety,” she told CityNews.
“If you talk to any municipal elected official, their number one complaint from citizens is speeding on their local roads, and so they really are focused on improving safety for all that use the road: cyclists, pedestrians, as well as motorists. So that doesn’t fundamentally change the lines.”
As for signage requirements, Dezell also noted regulations already require motorists to be warned.
“Technology is picking this up as well … I was talking to someone who said that Waze, for example, is picking up where these cameras are, so I think we need a bit more time to understand exactly what the ministry is trying to achieve through this proposed legislation,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dezell and Creelman both highlighted that there was a mention of ASE and red-light cameras in the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario’s 2025 election platform.
The document said a PC government would “focus municipal speed and red light cameras on achieving legitimate safety outcomes in school and safety zones versus growing municipal revenues and ensure greater transparency on their placement.”
