Niagara-on-the-Lake will lose dedicated road safety funding if Premier Doug Ford follows through with his plan to ban automated speed cameras next month, Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa says.
If the town doesn’t cut or redistribute services to replace the more than $100,000 in lost revenue, property taxes could rise about 0.75 per cent, he said.
“It truly depends on the full budget review, but if all else remains the same, this item has the impact of raising the levy by that amount,” said Zalepa.
The money was earmarked for upgrades, including the new speed limit signage after rural road limits were reduced last month, “not used to pad anybody’s budget,” he said.
Arguing “don’t speed and you don’t pay for it” and noting speeds have dropped significantly in areas with cameras, Zalepa rejected the premier’s claim they are “nothing more than a cash grab.”
“It’s too bad that I think there’s a little bit of rhetoric in this one,” he said.
Specifically for Niagara Stone Road, in early 2024, the region reported average speeds dropped to 46 km/h after the camera was active, down from 57 km/h before automated enforcement. It rose again to 53 km/h after enforcement ended.
“I just don’t think it’s fair,” Zalepa said about Ford’s comment. “Proof is in the reports. Proof is in the funding. Proof is in the audit financial statements.”
In a press conference on Thursday announcing the ban, Ford said cities and towns in Ontario should use speed bumps, flashing signs and other tools he said are more effective at slowing drivers than speed cameras.
The town expected to receive that $100,000 revenue from local speed camera fines and must now find a way to cover the shortfall — “unless the province steps up and provides something,” said Zalepa.
Ford said the province will distribute funds for municipalities to install traffic-calming measures, but Zalepa said no details have been shared with the town.
“It’s encouraging to see, I guess, the premier admit, or acknowledge, that there would be some impacts, which there are,” he said.
At stake for NOTL residents, he said, is the potential for council to raise the property tax levy to cover the loss.
“Municipalities have a couple options,” he said. “You stop doing something else, or you have to raise a levy.”
“That’s the impact that comes out of this kind of decision,” he said, adding that the province “has a right” to make the call.
Fines collected through the speed cameras are processed by the provincial offences system and directed into the Region’s Vision Zero program, which pays for safety projects such as pedestrian crossings, traffic-calming measures, new speed limit signs and community safety zones.
Any leftover revenue is returned to the municipalities where it was collected.
He said the region wouldn’t be much help in offsetting the gap: “The province is dictating what’s going to happen.”
For now, it’s too soon to know what could possibly be cut until the review of next year’s budget starts later this fall.
He said council will have to decide where to reapportion or redistribute funds.
“That’s a council decision and that’s a community decision, as to what the priorities are.”
