Last day for speed cameras in Mississauga and across Ontario

The 22 roadside speed cameras set up across Mississauga will snap their final images of lead-footed drivers on Thursday as the enforcement program comes to a controversial end across Ontario.

Many municipalities, among them the City of Mississauga, are upset by the provincial government’s decision to do away with the automated speed enforcement cameras.

Insisting that numbers show the roadside cameras have saved lives, Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish, city council and senior city staff have pushed Ontario Premier Doug Ford for weeks to ease up on his call for a complete ban and allow the cameras to remain in school zones.

However, the repeated pleas to the Premier — and Mississauga MPPs via a letter from the mayor — fell on deaf ears, with Ford staying the course since he first lashed out at the program a couple of months ago when he called the speed cameras nothing but a “cash grab.”

Under new provincial legislation passed two weeks ago, the ASE cameras have been banned province-wide effective Nov. 14, meaning more than 700 of the roadside devices set up since 2019 in 40 municipalities are being removed from service.

Moving forward, the Ontario government is making available $210 million for municipalities to implement traffic-calming measures — such as speed bumps, etc. — in the absence of the speed cameras.

The roadside devices in Mississauga will continue to operate and dish out tickets to speeders in school zones until end of the day today, city officials said.

The cameras will then be decommissioned in accordance with the provincial government’s Bill 56, also known as the Building a More Competitive Economy Act, which passed on Oct. 30.

“The loss of speed cameras will have a significant impact and place added pressure on our existing road safety initiatives,” Sam Rogers, Mississauga’s commissioner of transportation and works, said in a news release last Friday. “As the city navigates this transition, we urge all drivers to follow the posted speed limits. The removal of speed cameras does not mean the removal of responsibility. We remind drivers to respect the rules to help protect our community.

City officials say drivers should take note that:

• Speed camera tickets will continue to be issued until the end of day on Nov. 13. All existing tickets are valid and must be paid or appealed by their due date.
• The city will coordinate the removal of all speed cameras and speed camera signage on municipal roads. Some cameras and speed camera signage may remain past Nov. 13, but will not be operational.
• The city’s 201 Community Safety Zones (including all school zones) will remain, which allows for enhanced police enforcement by doubling certain fines like speeding.
• Removing speed cameras doesn’t mean drivers are now allowed to go above a certain speed limit. The city continues to encourage all drivers to drive the posted speed limits, especially in school zones and community safety zones.

Mayor Carolyn Parrish told Mississauga MPPs in a letter that automated speed enforcement cameras have saved lives in the city.

Mississauga’s mayor and city officials have repeatedly pointed out that speed cameras have saved lives in Mississauga since the city launched its ASE camera program in 2021 (the strategy reduced school zone speeds an average of 9 km/h, according to the city).

In her letter to Mississauga MPPs two weeks ago, Parrish insisted Mississauga’s ASE camera program is not a “cash grab,” but instead “an important tool that keeps speeds down in school zones, protects vulnerable people like children and older adults, and makes our communities safer. I think these are goals we can all agree are important. Mississauga has been the gold standard for the implementation of ASE cameras.”

Mississauga officials noted earlier that 169,109 fines were dished out in the city under the speed camera initiative between its launch in June 2021 and this past August.

(Cover photo: City of Mississauga)