The province of Ontario has banned the use of speed cameras for automated speed enforcement effective Nov. 14.
Premier Doug Ford shared on X that “cash-grab municipal speed cameras are no longer allowed in Ontario.”
In place of municipal speed cameras, the province is investing $210 million through the Road Safety Initiatives Fund (RSIF) to increase road safety in school zones and community safety zones.
The fund will provide financial support for what the province calls “proven road safety measures that do not raise costs for drivers,” including speed bumps, raised crosswalks, roundabouts and police enforcement in zones where cameras were previously deployed.
Shawn Lewis, Deputy Mayor of London, Ont., shared with XFM News what the province’s decision to ban the cameras means for the city.
“It means that we lose a very important tool in road safety and speed enforcement in our school zones. And I think it’s really important to underscore, that for London, we were only using these in school zones,” Lewis said.
London has seven automated speed enforcement cameras, which are now turned off, that were rotated through only school zones for up to three months where speeding was identified as an issue.
“We saw a considerable benefit to them anywhere from a 5 to a 7 kilometer an hour reduction in speeds around our schools where the cameras were deployed,” Lewis said.
Lewis added that London city council did not designate community safety zones all over the city, only focusing on school zones.
Municipal speed camera sign at the intersection of Fallons Lane and Huron Street.
(James Burnard/XFM News)
In 2024, the city made over $450,000 in gross revenue from the speed camera program, but after expenses, only $105,088 in net revenue was made.
“That was going back into new crosswalks, into line painting on roads, which is something people ask for all the time, road safety programs and improvements like that,” Lewis said.
As part of the RSIF, the provincial government is providing $42 million in immediate funding to support “traffic-calming” measures in school zones and community safety zones, previously covered by municipal speed cameras.
In an update obtained by XFM News from the province to Mayor Josh Morgan, London is being provided $1,291,098 as immediate interim funding to implement alternates to speed cameras.
The email said the funding is intended to support activities, like such, at former automated speed enforcement sites:
- Temporary targeted enforcement resources until more permanent measures, such as traffic-calming or other safety initiatives, are in place.
- Implementation of traffic-calming measures (e.g., speed bumps, raised crosswalks, roundabouts, etc.), where feasible, excluding measures that remove a lane of traffic.
- Signage improvements such as the installation of new warning signage and digital speed feedback displays.
The funding must only be used on those activities, and all initiatives that are funded under the RSIF must be completed by Mar. 31, 2028.
“Mr. Ford has made a choice that instead of speeders paying for these things, that the property taxpayer should be paying for them because the only other way to fund them is to increase property taxes, and that’s not a road I really wanted to go down,” Lewis said.
“When the province says and brags that they haven’t increased taxes, it’s actually not true. They’ve simply downloaded the cost and forced municipalities to increase property taxes for the things that they’re not paying for that they should be.”
Lewis thinks a return of the speed cameras is likely, saying he could see a new provincial government bringing them back in a modified form.
“I think London would be allowed probably to use it exactly the way we were because we did not expand the program into areas outside of school zones and things,” he said. “We stuck very close to the original intent. So I think we actually provided a good model.”
