'Unfair' new rules see Sask. cities with photo radar lose half of revenue to provincial fund

Saskatchewan municipalities that use photo radar to ticket speeders will lose half the revenue they previously received thanks to a change in provincial legislation coming on January 1, 2019.

Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), which runs the photo radar program, currently provides all revenue left over after covering costs and administration to the municipality where the ticket was issued.

In 2019 an amendment to The Traffic Safety (Speed Monitoring) Regulations will redirect half of that revenue back to SGI, which will put the money into a Provincial Traffic Safety Fund.

Communities that do not have photo radar will then be able to apply for grants paid for by revenue from municipalities that do.

SGI said the money is only available for traffic safety improvements. Decisions on who receives grants will be made by a committee comprising representatives from SGI, the justice and highways ministries, chiefs of police, urban and rural municipalities associations and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.

Regina Mayor Michael Fougere said he expressed disagreement with the changes to Joe Hargrave, the minister responsible for SGI.

"Wherever the infraction occurs is where the money should stay and that simply has been the case for most infractions that take place and this breaks that principle," said Fougere in a phone interview on Friday.

"There was not a lot of consultation on this either. This simply was brought in for frankly urban municipalities to help fund rural municipality issues and we think that's just unfair."

Fougere said he hopes the province will reconsider its decision before the change comes into effect on Jan. 1.

Cities should be allowed to fund their own photo radar: Councillor

The City of Saskatoon had also previously written to the provincial government asking them to reconsider the change.

Saskatoon city councillor Darren Hill, who is also on the board of directors for the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, said it leaves the city with only two options.

"We will either have to recoup that from property tax or not address the same level of traffic concerns that we have done in the past," he said.

Between January and September this year, Regina received $851,679 in net revenue from photo radar enforcement and Saskatoon received $707,016.

SGI said past revenues are not necessarily an indication of future revenues.

According to Hill, Saskatoon has used the money to run traffic stops and improve traffic safety in residential neighbourhoods, among other measures. He said Saskatoon should be able to run its own photo radar, taking on both the costs and revenue.

"It's the same with other municipalities … let them fund their own or they can set up a different program where they are partnering with the province," he said.

"I remain committed to the position that [revenue] should stay in the municipality where it's generated."

Photo radar is not about revenue: SGI spokesperson

SGI spokesperson Tyler McMurchy said municipalities should consider the money as bonus revenue.

"The host communities still do get to benefit, they do get a share of that revenue, but it should not be money that any municipality should count on, it's additional revenue and we would hope that those revenues shrink over time as people slow down," he said.

He said photo radar is not designed to generate revenue but to improve safety.

"It should be about safety and we would be happy if there was zero tickets issued and zero revenue," he said.

Breakdown of distribution

Twenty-five per cent of photo radar revenue, along with money from all other traffic tickets and speeding fines, goes to the province's General Revenue Fund, used to help pay for administration of the court and collection processes.

If the cost of running the photo radar program is more than the 75 per cent remaining, SGI will continue to bear that full cost as it does now.

SGI's photo radar ran as a pilot from March 2015 to March 2017.

In September 2018, the province announced it was making the program permanent and leaving it open to expansion after concluding that, on average, speeding was reduced.

SGI said it studied two years worth of data from the pilot project to make its decision.

Photo radar is currently enforced on five major roads, including Regina's Ring Road and Saskatoon's Circle Drive. Photo radar can also found in school zones in Saskatoon, Regina and Moose Jaw.

36,449 tickets were issued from the Circle Drive camera in Saskatoon. 20,967 were issued from the Ring Road camera in Regina.

With files from CBC's Stephanie Taylor