Speeders in Edmonton get $12.3M in refunds

Concerns over the reliability of Edmonton's intersection safety cameras have prompted the province to announce a refund on more than 100,000 paid "Speed on Green" tickets issuedback to November 2009.

The Crown is also withdrawing all tickets that are currently before the courts. The head Crown prosecutor for Edmonton, Steve Bilodeau, obtained an order Monday from a Court of Queen's Bench judge to quash all convictions.

"This is all about public confidence. This is about reliability of the intersection safety cameras," Bilodeau said.

"And when the Crown takes a case to court, we have to be able to say to the public and to the courts, that this is reliable, this is accurate, this is correct and because of a glitch with the ISC cameras, we can't do that."

About 140,000 tickets will be overturned in total, Bilodeau said. Thelost revenueon the overturned tickets is estimated to be $13 million, Bilodeau said. About $12.3 million will need to be refunded.

On Jan. 14, the city announced it was suspending its Speed on Greenprogram after some vehicles were clocked at a questionable rate of speed.

Monday's decision affects 102,700 tickets that were paid between November 2009 and Jan. 14.The refund process will likely takethree to four months.

Tickets withdrawn back to start of program

The city's general manager of transportation, BobBoutilier, said the fact the Crown quashed the tickets back to the beginning of the intersection safety program raises questions for him.

Boutilier said he needs to find out whythe Crown went back that far, since the city only started noticing problems with the cameras in July.

"I'm concerned that the extent of the Crown's decision makes this a big issue," he said.

"If they've gone back to the beginning of the Speed on Green [program], I've a lot more concerns than just looking at something that might haveoccurred part way through the system. "

Boutilier expects the cameras will be offline for another month.

The city takesin most of the revenuegenerated by the tickets, with the remainder going to the province.The lost revenue will be carried over from the 2010 operating surplus so there should be no impact on this year's taxes, Boutilier said.

However, there will be an effect on city and police traffic safety programs, which are funded fromticket revenues.

Vehicle clocked at 143 km/h

Bilodeau said he first became aware of the issue on Jan. 12 when one of the Edmonton Crown prosecutors brought him a questionable ticket. The vehicle wasrecorded going 143 km/h on the Yellowhead Trail but so were all the other vehicles around it.

Bilodeau said he raised the issue with the police force's acting chief, David Korol. Police agreed there was a problem and made a recommendation the next day for the Crown to stopall prosecutions.

"I really give the Edmonton Police Service credit. They took the high road on this," Bilodeau said. "They didn't quibble about it. They didn't try to persuade us that there was anything else to do but stop the prosecutions on this."

Tickets issueddue tored-light cameras and photo radar are still valid and must be paid or dealt with in court.

Bilodeau said the issue only affects intersection cameras in Edmonton.