Just three weeks after Councillors on the Hamilton Public Works Committee voted unanimously to double the number of speed cameras in the city, a new motion was brought forward and passed unanimously to have staff report back on implementing even more.
The move comes despite the fact that Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his government formally announced that they will be bringing forward legislation at some point this month to ban the use of municipal automated speed enforcement cameras across the province.
The legislation is expected to pass since Ford has a majority government.
At a Sept. 17 meeting of the Public Works Committee, Councillors voted 12-0 to expand Hamilton’s automated speed camera program from four to eight camera units.
At the next meeting, which was held on Sept. 29, Councillor Nrinder Nann (Ward 3 – East Hamilton Centre) brought forward the new motion to have staff examine how to expand the speed camera program even further.
Staff previously identified that expanding the automated speed enforcement program beyond eight cameras would likely exceed available resources, including the Traffic Enforcement Reserve and Provincial Offences Administration.
Currently, automated speed enforcement and red light camera infractions in Hamilton are processed via the Centralized Processing Centre operated in Toronto under the Provincial Offences Administration system, which is “constrained by court capacity.”
However, municipalities are now allowed to process such violations through the Administrative Penalty System, an alternative that has to be set up at the municipal level, which reduces provincial court workload.
Therefore, Nann’s motion directed Transportation Division staff “to further assess how the Automated Speed Enforcement program can be expanded to provide enhanced and progressive city-wide coverage, and report back to the Public Works Committee in Q2 2026 with options for consideration, including associated staffing and financial resourcing requirements within the Transportation and supporting Divisions.”
Nann said that “research from Sick Kids, Toronto Metropolitan University, the Canadian Automobile Association, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, Traffic Engineer Research Foundation, the Ontario Traffic Council, as well as the City of Hamilton’s data all confirm that automated speed enforcement is effective at reducing speeding, changing driver behaviour, and making our roads safer for everyone.”
But Councillor Matt Francis (Ward 5 – Hamilton East-Stoney Creek) said that there is a lot of “confusion about how these speed cameras are used city to city.”
He asked staff if they could share the threshold at which automated speed cameras are activated to give someone a ticket.
“Is there some leeway here? Because there seems to be a lot of confusion from folks. They think there’s a one-kilometre-an-hour threshold,” said Francis.
Staff replied, “The threshold is not something that any municipality discloses.”
Francis tried again, asking, “But is the threshold one kilometre per hour? Is that true?”
Staff again replied, “We’re not able to disclose the threshold or if there is a threshold.”
Despite staff’s answer, Nann’s motion passed on an 11-0 vote.
Meanwhile, Ford and the Ontario government have the support of Max Baxter, the President of the Police Association of Ontario, Ian Cunningham, the President of the Council of Ontario Construction Associations, and Noah Jarvis, the Ontario Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Cunningham says that because tickets are sent to plate owners instead of drivers, the tickets “can be recorded on a company’s Commercial Vehicle Operator’s Registrations (CVOR) and may threaten its ability to operate.”
Meanwhile, Jarvis says, “Speed cameras can be deployed by municipalities as an easy method to squeeze extra revenue from struggling taxpayers, all under the pretext of safety. Getting rid of automatic speed cameras is a common-sense way to save taxpayers’ money from municipalities looking to use them as a cash grab.”
VOTING RESULTS ON NANN’S MOTION
IN FAVOUR (11): Maureen Wilson (Ward 1 – Chedoke-Cootes-Westdale), Cameron Kroetsch (Ward 2 – Downtown Hamilton), Nrinder Nann (Ward 3 – East Hamilton Centre), Tammy Hwang (Ward 4 – Hamilton East), Matt Francis (Ward 5 – Hamilton East-Stoney Creek), Tom Jackson (Ward 6 – East Mountain), Esther Pauls (Ward 7 – Central Mountain), Mark Tadeson (Ward 11 – Glanbrook-Binbrook-Mount Hope), Craig Cassar (Ward 12 – Ancaster-West Flamborough), Mike Spadafora (Ward 14 – West Mountain), Ted McMeekin (Ward 15 – East Flamborough-Waterdown)
AGAINST (0)
ABSENT (4): Rob Cooper (Ward 8 – West/Central Mountain), Jeff Beattie (Ward 10 – Stoney Creek-Fruitland-Winona), Alex Wilson (Ward 13 – Dundas-Central Flamborough), Mayor Andrea Horwath
NOT ON THE PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE (1): Brad Clark (Ward 9 – Upper Stoney Creek)
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
