Careful motorists cut cash for cops

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This article was published 18/09/2009 (5918 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG drivers are running significantly fewer red lights and slowing down near photo­radar cameras this year — at least in part, police believe, because of all the controversy over construction-site enforcement.

More careful drivers also translates into less cash for the Winnipeg Police Service, however. The expected drop in photo-radar violations, which is based on tickets issued this year so far, will create a $4.7-million shortfall in the police budget by the end of the year if the trend toward safer driv­ing continues, Winnipeg police Chief Keith McCaskill said.

Earlier this year, when a court chal­lenge forced the city to change the way it enforces speed limits at con­struction sites, the city and province became embroiled in a public dispute over who was responsible for what many motorists considered a gouge.

Ironically, all the media attention and public outrage led to more aware­ness about the need to drive safely and real results on the streets, McCaskill told city councillors Thursday.

"We want people to stop speeding, we want people to stop at red lights, and it’s happening," McCaskill told city council’s finance committee, predicting police will issue 103,992 photo-radar offences by the end of 2009, down almost a third from the 2008 total of 167,767 tickets. "Really, I think (the controversy) helped a lot."

Surpluses in other city budget line items will fill the $4.7-million hole, as is the standard city accounting prac­tice, City of Winnipeg’s chief finan­cial officer Mike Ruta said. But the potential for continued volatility in photo-radar revenues — that is, huge swings in the number of violations and fines from year to year — means the city might want to consider creating a stabilization fund for photo-radar rev­enue, said finance committee chair­man Justin Swandel (St. Norbert).

The Winnipeg Police Service rotates 33 photo-radar cameras among 48 lo­cations. The police have no plans to buy more cameras or increase the number of enforcement locations right now, McCaskill said. He insisted he has no problem with the police budget shortfall because traffic safety, not revenue, is the main objective of photo-radar enforce­ment.

Overall, Ruta said, the city is ex­pecting to run a deficit of $5.6 million by the end of the year, based on June 30 financial statements. But that does not mean the city will actually run a deficit on its $785-million operating budget, as surpluses usually material­ize in enough budget line items later in the fall to place the city in the black by the end of year.

In addition to the police-budget shortfall, the city is forecasting a $5.1-million snow-clearing shortfall that stemmed from the cost of clean­ing up after ice storms early this year. But $4.4 million remains in the snow-clearing stabilization fund to whittle down that figure and the cost of fall 2009 snow-clearing remains unknown. Ruta also said it cost Win­nipeg $6.2 million to fight the spring flood of 2009, but the province will likely pick up $4.5 million of the flood­fighting tab. The Winnipeg Fire Para­medic Service is also expected to be $2 million over budget by the end of the year, mainly because of increased wages and the continued absence of an ambulance-funding deal between the city and province.

On the positive side of the ledger, the city is again expecting to earn more investment revenue this year, as it did last year, because institutional investors such as governments — which have access to bonds and other guaranteed investments that are not available to smaller investors — con­tinue to enjoy relatively good returns during volatile economic times.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca