Alberta’s United Conservative Party says it will stay the course with changes to photo radar that were decided on by the previous government — for now.
In February, the NDP government said it would be making changes to photo radar usage across the province after releasing an independent review that suggested municipalities were using it as a cash cow.
At the time, then-Transportation Minister Brian Mason said automated traffic enforcement, commonly known as photo radar, should only be used to make our roads safer, not generate revenue.
Some of the new regulations from the NDP took effect immediately, while others were implemented in June.
The NDP lost the 2019 Alberta election in April, leaving many people across the province wondering if the changes would stick around.
Now, the UCP tells Global News it will continue on with the NDP’s new guidelines, implementing more of the new guidelines in 2020.
“We’re going to go ahead with what’s in place,” UCP Transportation Minister Ric McIver said. “Really, we’re just getting experienced with the new changes to photo radar that are in place, and, after a period of time, we’ll look at what effect, if any, that has had and then think about what’s best.
“What most universally think is the purpose of photo radar should be for safety and not revenue generation.”
Previous changes implemented by the NDP include the banning of photo radar on high-speed, multi-lane highways unless there is a documented traffic safety issue and the banning of photo radar in transition zones where speed limits change.
“Transition zones, where the speed goes down at the bottom of a hill and drivers are just coasting down to the regular speed and they get a big, fat ticket, they are not very happy about that, and I think rightly so,” McIver said.
In an email to Global News, the Ministry of Transportation said that starting March 1, 2020, municipalities will be required to use “enhanced data reporting” and “evaluation systems” to ensure photo radar operations are focused on safety.
“We’ll see whether this makes a difference in how it’s used,” McIver added.
At this time, there are no plans to ban photo radar outright throughout the province, though back in September 2011, Strathcona County council voted to abolish mobile photo radar enforcement and instead hire five additional enforcement officers.
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Calgary Coun. Jeff Davison said photo radar isn’t likely to be banned outright in the southern Alberta city due to a tight budget.
“Having officers pulling people over when we could arguably use robotic cameras to do that, is that something we should be looking at more of or less of, given the cost implications of having a gun-carrying police officer pulling people over?” Davison said.
“I don’t think anything stops people from speeding,” he added. “You very consciously make a choice to speed. It’s a question of how do we best look forward to ensuring that we’re policing that and finding that appropriately.”
When the changes were announced by the NDP in February, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said he believed the city is already compliant with the stricter guidelines. He said the city is also transparent about where photo-radar revenue goes.
—With files from Doug Vaessen
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