Watch above: Saskatoon councillors will have a say when the issue of photo radar goes to council this month.
SASKATOON – Saskatoon’s photo radar pilot project is one step closer to approval now that city council is part of the process.
A motion was passed during Monday’s traffic committee meeting to allow councillors to voice their concerns about the project at their next council meeting on Nov. 24.
“We’re going to find out from the solicitor if we even have a part in it, so we need to get through that first of all,” said Mayor Don Atchison.
Councillors have been advocating to have a part in the motion but now that they do, they’re not sure what their role will be.
The city solicitor will make that clear before their next meeting.
Photo radar is a two year provincial pilot project, being set up around Saskatchewan, including Regina and Moose Jaw.
In Saskatoon, it comes down to jurisdiction. Policy is set by the Board of Police Commissioners, operation is handled by the police chief and, unlike every other municipality in the province, the city is in charge of funding.
“Is this a police operation, or is this a city operation?” asked Ward 6 Coun. Charlie Clark, who is also the traffic committee chair
“In other cities it’s been entirely operated by police, but because of the way we have our contract set up, even with the red light cameras, in Saskatoon there is ownership by the city itself because the city is involved in the contract and the administration of the tickets and all of those things so that’s where we have skin in the game.”
“There really has to be clear and distinctive lines between funding, policy and operations,” added Atchison.
“I think we want to make sure that the politicians aren’t telling the police service on the operations side what they can and cannot do.”
After council’s debate on Nov. 24, if they decide they’re against photo radar, the cameras can still be installed upon approval from police.
“We’re a democracy and if some people want this debated by city council and some councillors don’t feel comfortable, I think it should be debated, let’s move on and hear what they have to say, then we’ll know at the end of the day if we have support for it or not in Saskatoon,” explained Police Chief Clive Weighill.
“The two other jurisdictions have said if council does not want it, they want to know that,” added Clark.
As part of the two year pilot project, photo radar was supposed to be installed earlier this year at five rotating locations on Circle Drive and eventually in school zones.
“We’ve got good benchmarks on what the speeds are now, so it’ll be easy for us in a couple of years to see if we’ve really made a difference or not and we can really quantify that, have cars slow down, have accidents reduced,” added Weighill.
According to a report sent to the traffic committee last week, the new launch date is set for the end of November.
With council now involved, that date could be pushed back a couple of weeks.
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