Mississauga issued $1M in photo radar speeding ticket fines but speed camera program losing money: City staff report

8,339 tickets issued through Mississauga speed camera program

Thestar.com
June 28, 2022
Steve Cornwell

Mississauga’s photo radar program is losing money so far.

Mississauga has collected just over a quarter of the more than $1 million in fines issued as part of the city’s automated photo radar program, according to a report going before council Wednesday.

The report shows that as of June 3, $1.04 million in fines have been issued as part of 8,339 tickets since the city’s Automated Speed Enforcement program began enforcing in July 2021 but only $287,271 of those fines have so far been collected.

Colin Patterson, the city’s manager of traffic services and road safety, says that the amount of fines collected is affected by the options legally offered to vehicles owners ticketed by the program, including the right to request a trial or an early resolution meeting.

Those ticketed also have the option to pay their ticket by mail, online or over the phone.

“All three options take time and will impact the timelines associated with the collection of fines,” Patterson says in a statement, adding that “fines that were issued in 2021 are still collectible.”

The fines are so far not covering the program’s operational costs, which the report says $853,610 since last year, a loss of over $566,000 compared to collected penalties.

According to budget documents, the city is planning to further expand the speed camera program over the next three years, spending more than four and half times more per year by 2025, going from around $3.5 million this year to $19.3 million by the middle of the decade.

The $43-million cost of the program between 2022 and 2025 is expected to be “more than offset” by revenues for the speed cameras according to the city’s recent budget.

While the speed cameras may not be covering their costs yet, the city staff report says the program has been effective at slowing vehicular speeds where it’s been deployed.

The program was approved as part of the 2020 budget and is one of the city's initiatives for Vision Zero, which aims to reduce road causalities to zero.