Delays plague Brampton's new speed camera rollout

New road safety measures in Brampton that were expected to be live this summer have been delayed until the fall.

The city announced last December it would more than triple the number of speed cameras on local roads by July 1 and open a $46-million centre to process resulting tickets.

Mayor Patrick Brown says there was a delay because the city "didn't get the approval from the attorney general fast enough," while a ministry spokesperson told CBC Toronto that's not the case.

The city signed an agreement with the province for the ticket processing centre on June 21 and submitted a request on July 25 for 32 enforcement officers to work at the centre, ministry spokesperson Tanya Blazina said in an emailed statement. The final sign-off on the centre will happen later this summer, Blazina said.

But Brown says he plans to inaugurate the centre this month, even though the city is still working on staffing it.

Currently, the city's 50 existing cameras only operate for two hours per day, which Brampton city staff sayis due to the lack of processing capacity at Toronto's joint processing centre (JPC).

"With the new processing centre, the city will have greater capacity to process camera images and significantly increase the hours of camera operation," Brampton spokesperson Kennisha Petgrave said in an email.

Brampton to deploy 135 new cameras by 2025

Brown says Brampton asked Toronto if it could get more processing hours but that request was turned down.

Toronto city staff, however, dispute that.

"Since the start of their program in 2020, Brampton has requested one increase, which Toronto was able to accommodate," Toronto spokesperson Laura McQuillan said via email.

"Brampton is planning to grow their automated speed enforcement (ASE) program significantly, at a rate where the Toronto JPC may not be in a position to accommodate the growth. We understand their decision to implement their own processing centre in Brampton and will continue to support them as they work toward their expansion," McQuillan said.

The additional speed cameras and the ticket processing centre are part of Brampton's plan to deploy a total of 135 new cameras by 2025 to address speeding in community safety areas, such as around schools, Petgrave said.

Even though 100 of those cameras were initially planned to be installed by July 1, staff say just 20 have been installed to date because the city only found a vendor in June.

Staff did not share locations of the new cameras or how much the city is paying the vendor that is responsible to install, maintain and repair or replace cameras in case of vandalism.

85 per cent ofdrivers speedin safety zones: city

According to a 2021 preliminary data report on the existing 50 speed cameras, which were installed between September 2020 to April 2021, staff found 85 per cent of drivers in community safety zones drove 20 km/h above the speed limit, and roads with speed cameras experienced an 18 per cent decline in speeding.

"This rollout marks the largest single municipal ASE camera program in Ontario," Petgrave said.

The ticket processing centre is anticipated to generate $30 million in tickets annually, according to a May staff report. Of that, $13 million will go towards the annual operational cost and $17 million will be used to recoup funds spent to set it up, which came fromthe city's legacy fund, the report said.

Blazina from the Ministry of Transportation says any municipality in Ontario will be able to request to get their speed camera images processed at the new centre in Brampton after getting approval from the ministry.