Kitchener pauses speed camera program while Region of Waterloo goes ahead

Councillors with the City of Kitchener voted in favour of hitting the brakes on a plan that would see more speed cameras installed in front of schools.

The automated speed enforcement camera program is administered by the Region of Waterloo.

On Monday, during a Kitchener council meeting, the fines associated with the program were up for discussion.

“We don't want them to accuse it as being a cash grab or anything like that,” Councillor Bil Ioannidis told CTV News.

Under the new program, there are no tickets like there would be with a typical speeding violation. Instead, there’s an administrative fine which costs twice as much as a traditional speeding ticket.

Ioannidis said it is too much of a financial burden to support.

“If the issue is about safety, then the program should be somewhat revenue neutral,” he said.

The Region of Waterloo said the fines are set by the province and there’s nothing they can do about it.

“So we're simply following the schedule that they've set for this type of program,” said Doug Spooner, interim director of transportation, Region of Waterloo.

But Spooner said the new system does not come with the hidden of costs of your typical speeding ticket.

“It's applied to the car, not to the driver. So, there's no impact. Your insurance, there's no demerit points,” Spooner said.

For Spooner and the region, they are pushing ahead with the plan throughout the rest of the region and on regionally controlled roads in Kitchener.

“A car traveling at 50 kilometers an hour in a collision with a pedestrian - the pedestrians have a 15 per cent survivability rate. A car traveling at 40 kilometers an hour in a collision with a pedestrian, that number moves from 15 to 70 per cent survivability,” Spooner said.