Ottawa city council is fighting back against provincial speed camera legislation

Doug Ford’s Ontario government has introduced new legislation that would remove all photo radar cameras, including those that monitor speed in school zones, claiming to “protect taxpayers”.

Ottawa is saying “no”, first with a protest over the weekend and now with a new motion passed unanimously by city council on Wednesday that is pushing back against the province.

“This will make our communities and our neighborhoods less safe,” said River Ward Coun. Riley Brockington at the council meeting. “This is not good legislation.”

The Ontario bill, titled “Building a More Competitive Economy”, was tabled on Monday and claims to be “cutting red tape and speeding up approvals for major projects.”

The bill is aimed at improving Ontario’s economy through targeted reforms that include reviewing Ontario government economic development-focused permits and creating a centralized digital permitting system to reduce red tape.

It also includes a plan to end the use of municipal speed cameras, claiming that the move will “protect taxpayers”, and instead defer to measures such as speed bumps, speed cushions and roundabouts.

As part of the Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) program, there are currently 60 photo radar cameras installed across Ottawa, 50 of which are in school zones. There are also plans to install 24 new cameras this fall. 

The motion from Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney asked council to affirm the safety benefits of the ASE program and states that should the province proceed with removing the cameras from school zones, the City will be permitted to phase out the cameras over a 12-month period.

It also requests that the province fund the mitigation and removal of the program and commit to allocating mitigation exclusively to the City’s Road Safety Action Plan budget, which currently receives revenue from the ASE cameras.

The motion was also forwarded to Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria.

In the meeting, Tierney, who is also chair of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, said that the City is willing to negotiate and compromise with the province, but that drawing the line at school zones is just “saving the furniture.”

 “The school zones are the critical part, and I hope to have unanimous support today,” he told councillors.

He also said that the new legislation risks the funding from the cameras that is currently dedicated to road safety initiatives.

 “We made a commitment to use that money for safety within the community, to build infrastructure for safety. What are we jeopardizing?” he said. “We have a plan. We're ready to roll, but it was to be funded by that. 

“We're going to lose that money, and we won't be able to make that commitment to our constituents if we lose that money, unless we go back and find another funding source.”

What the data shows

City of Ottawa data from between January and August of 2025 recorded a total of 26,224 violations. The cameras with the most violations were in Sandy Hill, on King Edward Avenue between Bolton Street and St. Patrick Street (26,224 in the 8-month period), and Walkley Road between Halifax Drive and Harding Road (15,180).

Other community safety zones that had among the highest violations on the ASE cameras were Merivale Road (9,199) between MacFarlane Road and Brookdale Avenue and Colonial Road between Delson Drive and Frank Kenny Road (8,826), both of which are school zones.

The data also shows that the general driving speed in these areas has decreased in the years since the ASE cameras were installed. Prior to camera implementation, the percentage of drivers who complied with the posted speed limit was only 16 per cent.

In the first three months of implementation, that rate increased to 57 per cent, the data says. After one year, 69 per cent of drivers complied with the speed limit. Three years later, the rate of compliance rose to 81 per cent.

“The use of speed enforcement cameras work. It does reduce the speed of motors in school and safety zones,” said Brockington. “It works in Ottawa, we have those stats.”

It isn’t clear when the Ontario government would begin to crack down on the cameras, and representatives did not respond to requests from The Ottawa Lookout in time for publication.

The ASE program has been able to monitor speed without the need for police officers to necessarily be on-site for enforcement. The Lookout reached out to the Ottawa Police Service for details on how this might impact police operations and resource allocation, but did not hear back in time for publication. 

Councillor criticizes Premier’s plan

College ward Coun. Laine Johnson also supported the motion and argued that the province’s proposal to replace cameras with other resources, like speed bumps, would not work.

“They can't in most cases. Can you imagine Greenbank [Road] or Woodroffe [Avenue] with speed humps? The allowed vehicle speeds are too high to install these alternative measures, so cars will be catching a lot of air if we decide to start implementing these things there,” she said. 

She also addressed what she called “misinformation” that the ASE program is a “cash grab”.

“It's true, they subsidize some road safety programs. That's the benefit of a fine, but when that revenue is taken away from municipalities, we'll have a hard choice to make. We'll either have to scale back those programs significantly — programs that I believe I was actually elected to protect and to promote — or we have to fund them from the property tax base.”

Some of the investments funded by the ASE program revenue include temporary traffic calming measures, the crossing guard programs and intersection improvements.

“Right now, all these programs that I've listed are paid for by people who break the law, who choose to speed near schools… They'll have to be paid for by law-abiding homeowners,” she continued. “That's the decision that the province is asking us to make: make the honest drivers pay, and don't charge those that are speeding. 

“That is being argued as fair. I disagree,” said Johnson. “I don't think it's fair. I think that driving is a privilege, it's not a right.

“And to paraphrase an old saying, ‘if you can't pay the fine, don't do the crime’.”