Ontario speed cameras to soon be removed after bill passes

TORONTO – Speed cameras are set to be removed across Ontario in two weeks, after Premier Doug Ford’s government passed legislation Thursday to ban them, though it’s unclear when the premier’s much-touted alternative traffic calming measures will replace them.

Ford has said speed cameras don’t work to slow drivers down — though evidence collected by municipalities and Hospital for Sick Children researchers says otherwise — and believes measures such as speed bumps, roundabouts and signs with flashing lights are more effective.

However, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria could not say when those measures would replace speed cameras.

“Ultimately we’ll have temporary signage, larger signage that will be installed before the 14th in all of the … municipal speed camera-impacted zones,” he said after question period.

“We’ll continue to work with municipalities on future funding throughout the next couple of weeks, on additional measures that they can take to improve traffic calming.”

Ford has said municipalities will be encouraged to use speed bumps, raised crosswalks and roundabouts and that there will be a new fund to help offset some of those costs, but the government has not yet provided an amount.

Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, who was among more than 20 mayors calling on the province to tweak rather than scrap the speed camera program, said municipalities have not heard anything further about the fund.

“The government should provide the funding and the alternative measures, whatever those are going to be, should be in place before speed cameras are removed,” she said in an interview. 

“Otherwise, we have a significant gap in safety.”

Signs are not sufficient, she said. Speed bumps are not appropriate on some of the busier roads around schools, and roundabouts are impractical and expensive, Meed Ward said.

“Speed cameras work, and they are cost effective because it shifts the burden of paying for speed cameras from taxpayers to law breakers.”

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said she is concerned about the speed camera removals, particularly during the period of time when there will be no speed cameras and no alternative measures.

“There’s lots of different things we can do, certainly, to slow people down,” she said. “But I’m telling you, if one pedestrian, if one kid, is injured in the interim, it is going to be on this premier’s shoulders.”

Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser said removing speed cameras will make communities less safe and is contrary to the evidence collected by municipalities, a study from the Hospital for Sick Children and Toronto Metropolitan University, and the advice of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.

“What Doug Ford did today by rushing through this is he said no to the chiefs of police, he said no to SickKids, and he said, ‘I’m taking sides with the vandals in downtown Toronto who have been taking down speed cameras.”

Ford’s public push against speed cameras began in earnest after 17 automated speed cameras were cut down in Toronto over two days.

The measures to ban speed cameras were contained in a red tape reduction bill, which the government fast-tracked, limiting debate and skipping public hearings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2025.