The Niagara Region paid $3,000 to buy and install the new surveillance camera posted at the site of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s repeatedly vandalized automated speed camera on Niagara Stone Road.
The speed camera’s schedule ended in August, with no plans to extend it, but the damaged housing pole will still be replaced, said Scott Fraser, the region’s associate director of transportation planning.
“So that the site is prepared for when the (automated speed enforcement) camera returns in future,” he said, adding no timeline has been set for the replacement, which the region will co-ordinate with the camera’s vendor.
The camera was chopped down last month and, Fraser said, removed by the vendor from the site because of the damage it incurred. It was chopped down last month.
Although the region says it’s seen positive results with photo radar cameras, Premier Doug Ford criticized them at a Sept. 22 press conference, where he said, “I’ve had many mayors tell me, ‘We know this is a tax grab.’”
The province plans to provide funding for speed bumps, flashing signs and other traffic-calming measures to municipalities across Ontario, which Ford said are more effective at slowing drivers.
“The speed traps do not slow people down,” Ford said. “They may slow them within the community, but there are so many other people coming throughout the community.”
Jason Misner, the region’s senior communications specialist, told The Lake Report the region is aware of the premier’s comments about automated speed enforcement and awaits “further direction from the province.”
So far, no vandalism has been captured on the surveillance camera.
Fraser said the region planned to install it while the speed camera was still in operation, but could not “because of required timelines for procurement, delivery and installation of the camera.”
The region went ahead with the installation regardless, he said, because poles and housings have been targeted in the past whether or not cameras were present.
The camera is owned and operated by the region and is not monitored live but can be accessed and shared with investigators if incidents occur.
Fraser said using closed-circuit TV cameras is “common practice” in Niagara to keep its infrastructure safe and for public safety.
Vandalism has not led the region to change its speed camera schedule, which “prioritizes enhancing road safety in community safety zones,” Fraser said.
Data from the 2025 enforcement program is still under review and will be shared with council in future updates.
