BRAMPTON — Just weeks after Brampton finished installing 185 automated speed enforcement (ASE) cameras and opening a $46-million ticket processing centre, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has announced his government will ban photo radar across the province — leaving city officials demanding compensation.
Ford unveiled the ban Thursday, calling ASE programs a “cash grab” that gouge drivers for going just a few kilometres over the speed limit. “Enough is enough,” he said. “If you really want to slow down traffic, you use other methodologies. Photo radar doesn’t slow people down. When you’re issuing 65,000 tickets in three months, that’s not slowing anyone down.”
Brampton, however, has poured tens of millions into the program since first adopting ASE in 2020. The city expanded from 50 ground-mounted cameras to 185 permanent pole-mounted units spread across community safety zones, with data showing reductions in speeding of up to 25 km/h in some areas.
At Wednesday’s council meeting, Coun. Rowena Santos argued that municipalities should not be left footing the bill for equipment that will be rendered useless. “If the province is going to remove this tool despite evidence that it works, then we should tally up how much we’ve spent on the program and request our money back,” she said.
Mayor Patrick Brown, who has lobbied Ford to keep at least part of the ASE program intact, said the city’s data proves cameras make roads safer. “We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” he said, urging the province to allow compromises such as stricter accountability rules or limited use in school zones.
Coun. Gurpartap Singh Toor also criticized Ford’s framing of the issue, noting it was Ford’s government in 2019 that first authorized municipalities to deploy ASE in safety zones. “Residents are being misled when they hear the city is to blame,” Toor said. “It was the province that enabled this program in the first place.”
City staff explained that Brampton collects the fine revenue from each ticket, while the province takes $8.25 per ticket for database access and adds a victim surcharge. The program had been expected to generate around $30 million annually, offsetting $13 million in yearly operating costs.
Ford said municipalities will instead receive provincial funding for alternate traffic-calming methods such as signage, speed bumps, raised crosswalks, and road redesigns — measures he claims are more effective and fairer to drivers. But he stopped short of promising refunds for cities like Brampton that invested heavily in cameras.
For now, Brampton councillors say they will continue pressing for repayment. “Obviously, if we knew the province was going to take the tool away, we would not have made the investment,” Santos said.