Doug Ford’s decision to introduce legislation to ban municipal speed cameras is truly bizarre.

All the evidence shows that drivers slow down when they know a speed camera is watching them. And speed is a leading cause of injury and death.

By all means, let people know the cameras are there (as the Town did before switching them on). 

The object of the exercise is not to ambush drivers but to get them to slow down.

The York Regional Police road safety map for Newmarket shows that over the past year 167 people have been pulled over for careless driving in Town, 80 for impaired driving, 23 for dangerous driving and 16 for stunt driving. And that's just for starters. 

Cash Grab

The Minister of Transportation, Prabmeet Sarkaria, claims:

“Municipal speed cameras have become nothing more than a tool for raising revenue." 

What an absurd statement. Nothing more than a revenue raising tool?

On 9 May 2023, Sakaria’s predecessor, our next door neighbour, Caroline Mulroney, told the Legislative Assembly:

“Our government introduced community safety zones around schools for this specific issue, to make sure that drivers take extra care when they are driving around our most vulnerable, our children. We have allowed municipalities to introduce this around schools, and we’re doing everything we can to support community safety zone implementation across Ontario. 

"We understand that in 2021 alone, over 250,000 tickets were issued to vehicles that were captured by speed cameras that were noticing speeding in these community safety zones.”

She warned that careless driving could in future merit more than a slap on the wrist:

“We’ve introduced a new offence for careless driving causing death or bodily harm, with penalties that include fines, licence suspensions and imprisonment. This offence carries the longest prison term of any penalty in the Highway Traffic Act.”

Lobotomised

We wait to see if the Bill goes into Committee and evidence is sought from road safety organisations or if it is just bulldozed through, as is so often the case, with next to no scrutiny.

Our own MPP, the lobotomised Dawn Gallagher Murphy, can be expected to support Ford’s latest bright idea. Even if it makes no sense.

Whatever the merits or otherwise of a proposal she can be counted on to parrot the Party line.

When the Safer Roads and Communities Bill was going through Queen’s park last year, Thomas Barakat, the Head of Public Policy at Good Roads (a municipal association focussed on the quality and design of roads) said this:

“We recommend that Bill 197 include provisions to double fines for speeding offences, introduce escalating sanctions for repeat offenders and empower municipalities to double speeding fines in school zones, as they already have the ability to do in community safety zones. I think a lot of you are aware, speeding fines in Ontario have not kept pace with inflation and are amongst the lowest in Canada. They have not been raised since 2005. According to MTO’s data, there has been a 25% increase in speed-related deaths over the past five years. We think that speeding should be treated as seriously as an issue as something like drunk driving. Updating these penalties would restore their deterrent effect and contribute to safer roads, particularly in school areas where children’s safety is paramount.” 

Socially unacceptable

I agree. Speeding should be treated as something that is socially unacceptable, like blowing cigarette smoke in someone’s face.

Last September at Queen’s Park, the NDP MPP for Sudbury, Jamie West, confessed:

“They reduced the speed limit in my area. I got caught by a speed camera doing five over, a $100 fine. I had to pay $100. I really, really watch my speed going through that area now, right? That’s the idea of it.”

Yep.  That’s the idea. 

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Update: Yesterday (25 September 2025) a friend emailed Dawn Gallager Muphy with concerns about the plan to ban speed cameras. This is the reply from Gallagher Murphy's Office:

Dear XXX,

Thank you for taking the time to reach out to the Office of Dawn Gallagher Murphy, MPP Newmarket-Aurora and share your concerns regarding banning speed cameras.

At a time when governments at all levels should be doing everything they can to lower costs and make life more affordable, too many municipalities are using speed cameras as a cash grab.

That is why our government is introducing legislation that will ban municipal speed cameras across the province. At the same time, we are establishing a new provincial fund to proactively support road and school zone safety without raising costs for drivers.

The new fund will help affected municipalities implement alternative safety measures to prevent speeding, including proactive traffic-calming initiatives like speed bumps, roundabouts, raised crosswalks and curb extensions, as well as public education and improved signage, to slow down drivers.

Since 2019, over 700 municipal speed cameras have been installed in 40 municipalities across Ontario, with more currently planned for installation in the coming months.

If passed, our legislation will prevent the use of municipal speed cameras in Ontario immediately upon Royal Assent. The province will also introduce requirements for municipalities with existing speed cameras in school zones to install large new signs in advance of a school zone to slow down drivers by mid-November 2025, with permanent, large signs with flashing lights to be in place by September 2026.

Enough is enough. Instead of making life more expensive by sending speeding tickets to drivers weeks after the fact, we’re supporting road-safety measures that will prevent speeding in the first place, keep costs down and keep our streets safe.

Please do not hesitate to reach out with any further questions, concerns or suggestions.

Regards,

The Office of Dawn Gallagher Murphy, MPP

Newmarket-Aurora

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.