Fines to double as region prepares to add speed cameras to school zones

Drivers caught speeding by an automated speed enforcement camera in Cambridge will be slapped with new fines that double what local scofflaws are used to seeing in the mail.

Regional council is expected to approve its new administrative penalties program next week, including a new bylaw that sets fines at the same rate as community safety zones.

The new penalty system comes as the region prepares to expand its automated speed enforcement (ASE) camera program to every school zone in the region by 2028.

Two operate in Cambridge already, one on Guelph Avenue near St. Gabriel Catholic Elementary School and one in front of Elgin Street Public School.

Four more ASEs are coming to Cambridge this fall and will coincide with the city's move to reduce speed limits in school zones to 30 km/hr.

The cameras will be installed on Myers Road, between Holy Spirit Catholic Elementary School and Moffat Creek Public Elementary School, on Holiday Inn Drive, at Jacob Hespeler Secondary School, on Saginaw Parkway at Clemens Mills Public School and on Avenue Road at St. Peters Catholic Elementary School.

The Highway Traffic Act (HTA) and a provincial regulation gives municipalities the power to establish bylaws to impose administrative penalties for drivers caught by ASEs. 

Fines set out in that new bylaw goes easy on drivers caught travelling 1 to 19 km/hr over the speed limit with a fine set at the current $5 per kilometre over.

Drivers who exceed 50 km/hr in school zones will take a bigger hit to their pocketbooks.

The fines jump to $7.50 per km for 20-29 km/hr over, $12 per km for 30-49 km/hr over and $19.50 per km for 50 km/hr or more over the maximum speed limit.

That means the owner of a vehicle caught doing 80 km/hr in a 30 km/hr school zone will get a $975 fine in the mail, but they won't have to appear in court.

The region says the new penalty rates are in line with most or all Ontario municipalities that use speed camera enforcement.

Anyone who wants to appeal a fine will have their case heard by a regionally appointed hearing officer at the Kitchener Provincial Offences Court on Queen Street.

Regional staff are working toward a November 15 launch for the program.