Staff are directed to analyze, select, and then seek Council approval for new operating locations for those two cameras for 2024 and 2025. Photo Credit: City of Hamilton/X.
At a recent Public Works Committee meeting, Hamilton City Council voted unanimously to approve the expansion of the Automated Speed Enforcement Program and the addition of six new full-time Roadway Safety Team employees.
The move came after a report to Council from Hamilton’s Director of Transportation, Carolyn Ryall, who recommended the addition of the cameras and new employees.
Thus, the city will add two new Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras, funded from the Automated Traffic Enforcement Reserve.
Staff are directed to analyze, select, and then seek Council approval for new operating locations for those two cameras for 2024 and 2025.
Then the six new Roadway Safety Team hires will consist of one Automated Traffic Enforcement Project Manager, one Roadway Safety Initiatives Project Manager, three Roadway Safety Technologists, and one Community Outreach and Education Coordinator.
The six new full-time employees will also be funded from the Automated Traffic Enforcement Reserve at an annual cost of $665,000.
The city says that the new staff positions will have “no impact to the tax levy in 2024 and in future years.”
City staff will also be extending the appropriate agreements with the Ministry of Transportation, City of Toronto Joint Processing Centre, and Redflex Traffic Systems (Canada) Limited for the expansion of the ASE program.
The city will also be hiring a 24-month Temporary Senior Project Manager for the Administrative Penalty Program at an approximate annual cost of $154,000, also funded through the Automated Traffic Enforcement Reserve.
The city also broke down the annual costs for the two new cameras.
The ASE Equipment Contract costs $300,000 per year, Infraction Processing is $400,000, Vehicle License Information from the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario costs $30,000, Provincial Offences Act Administration is estimated at $1.25 million, and Regulatory Signage and Internal Operations are pegged at $200,000.
Overall, the gross total estimated operating costs without HST is estimated at $2.18 million.
Meanwhile, the estimated recovery costs of violations for the two new cameras are $1.6 million, meaning that the expansion of the program will operate at a net projected annual operating deficit of $580,000.
Council first approved the establishment of a permanent ASE program in September 2021 with two cameras that rotate across 24 approved operating locations city-wide.
The implementation began in August 2023, with Council starting the location rotation on a schedule that is set to extend until August 2025.
It should be noted that the cameras are somewhat controversial and have been subject to consistent vandalism.
One reason for some of the controversy is that the city does not disclose threshold speeds, leading some to believe that tickets are being issued even to those going one kilometre per hour over the limit.
Indeed, the city’s website states, “As speed limits are not guidelines – they are the law – there is no need to disclose threshold speeds. Driving at the posted limit will ensure a ticket is not issued.”
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.
