Bradford West Gwillimbury wants to move fast on adding more speed cameras in the municipality.
At its first meeting of the new council term, the town’s Community and Traffic Safety Committee recommended staff report back on the costs associated with additional speed cameras in the community, through a partnership with the Toronto Joint Municipal Red Light Processing Centre (JPC).
During discussion on the matter at the April 4 council meeting, Mayor James Leduc suggest the town should go further than what’s suggested and investigate the partnership proposed between Barrie and Innisfil as well, which would see Innisfil become the first customer of the Barrie JPC, which is being launched in partnership with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.
“I want to make sure we get this right,” Leduc said. “It’s always good, in my opinion, to get more information. It’s not stopping; it’s just getting more information.”
The news of Innisfil’s potential deal caught the town off guard, with staff unable to include it as a potential option when discussing the matter with the traffic committee.
Since its reintroduction in 2017, only larger communities, such as the City of Toronto or Region of Peel have been able to utilize Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) technology due to the significant start-up cost of executing the program. Through its business arm, Local Authority Services (LAS), AMO is looking to help smaller and medium-sized municipalities in Ontario utilize ASE.
“We’re now interested in seeing how that problem rolls out,” said Terry Forhan, Director of Community Services. “I think it’s good information for all to understand. But it’s really at council’s will how fast you want to move and how educated you want to be on maybe what the process could look like.”
At a JPC, provincial offence officers receive and process the photos of vehicles exceeding the posted speed limit in the designated area which are captured by the ASE cameras. The officer then reviews the information collected and mails a ticket – including a photo of the infraction – to the registered plate owner of the vehicle within 30 days.
Town Chief Administrative Officer Geoff McKnight told council it could be near the end of the year at the earliest before the Innisfil system is online. An agreement with Toronto would see cameras operational and motorists being ticketed within 90 days, Coun. Nicolas Harper told his colleagues.
The comments around the council table made it clear to Leduc that “everybody wants this done tomorrow.”
Coun. Peter Ferragine and Coun. Joe Giordano were particularly adamant that council cannot wait another year or so before fulfilling its top strategic priority.
“It’s the main thing we hear at the door, it’s the main thing we get emails about all the time, it’s the main thing we get phone calls about, all the time,” Ferragine said. “I don’t want to sit on my hands on this. I don’t want to wait until halfway through our term.”
Ferragine supported the mayor’s amendment to gather more information, but that information needed to be amassed quickly. Entering into an agreement now with the City of Toronto would cost significantly less money than if the town did so six months down the road, he said.
“We need to put a cap on the timing of it,” Giordano added. “We have a short window before this going to cost us a lot more money.”
In the report to traffic committee, staff recommended undertaking a pilot project with a single mobile ASE camera at an approximate cost of $35,000 per year to operate and $325 to move between sites. Yet, additional figures drive the total start-up cost up, including approximately $60,000 to the City of Toronto (some of which is eventually returned) plus additional signage and town resources.
Following a pilot program in 2021 where warnings were sent to speeding motorists caught on camera, Bradford West Gwillimbury purchased new equipment that could qualify for an ASE program. Since 2022, that camera has been placed on Simcoe Road near Zima Crescent but is unable to issue tickets at this time as the town has not yet entered into an agreement with a JPC.
A staff report indicated Nearly 4,000 motorists were captured travelling more than 15 km/h faster than the 50 km/h posted speed limit on Simcoe Road between Jan. 1 and Jan. 20 of this year. The two fastest vehicles were clocked at 123 km/h and 103 km/h.
That’s money well spent, Ferragine said.
“It’s a two-year term,” he said of the proposal to utilize the Toronto JPC. “If it costs us money (and) it corrects behaviours in town, I don’t have a problem with it. It’s the same thing as any other project we do: it costs money to get a good outcome for our residents.”
Bradford needs to act fast to nab speeders, councillors say - BradfordToday
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