Ontario Premier Doug Ford has responded to a letter from more than 20 Ontario mayors asking to save the province’s automated speed cameras, telling them “the answer is no.”
Replying to a letter sent last week asking for changes to how speed cameras operate instead of an all-out ban, Ford repeated his claim the program is a “cash grab.”
“The only thing municipal speed cameras are 100 per cent effective at is taking money from hard-working people,” the premier wrote in his letter addressed to the mayors of Brampton and Burlington.
He said only 37 municipalities across the province were using the program, which he said had brought in millions in revenue.
“Clearly, if the point of speed cameras is to slow down drivers, they are failing miserably,” Ford wrote. “They’re cash grabs, pure and simple.”
Last week, 22 mayors had asked Ford to change his mind.
“A total ban on (automated speed enforcement) would reverse years of progress on safety in school zones,” they wrote.
“It would place more pressure on police, increase enforcement costs, and most critically, endanger lives.”
The Ford government has said it intends to ban speed cameras, which it brought in through regulation, once the House returns in a few weeks.
Vehicles assigned to Ford’s cabinet ministers were among the million-plus tickets handed out, with one netting a $450 fine for going 70 km/h in a 40 zone.