Ontario mayor who removed his city’s speed cameras wrote the law that introduced them AURORATOTO GROUP

Vaughan, Ont., Mayor Steven Del Duca took Premier Doug Ford’s complaint that automated speed cameras are a “tax grab” to heart last week, calling an emergency council meeting and scrapping his city’s enforcement.

Shortly after the premier first railed against the cameras, Del Duca put forward a successful council motion to immediately decommission Vaughan’s program.

“I listened, we listened, we heard from you loud and clear,” Del Duca said in a social media video. “This is what leadership looks like, in particular at this moment. You need leaders who have your back and who are on your side.”

The speed enforcement plan Del Duca moved to remove rapidly, however, was one he helped to create less than 10 years earlier.

In 2017, when he was transportation minister in Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government, it was his ministry that tabled a law titled the Safer School Zones Act. The legislation created a framework for cities to install automated speed enforcement cameras.

At the time, Del Duca praised the potential the cameras had to improve public safety, saying they were part of a crackdown on bad drivers.

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“We’ve heard directly from municipalities looking to get tougher on speeders and dangerous drivers in their communities,” a May 2017 statement attributed to Del Duca said.

“This new legislation will help protect our most vulnerable road users and ensure Ontario’s roads stay among the safest in North America.”

The Liberals lost the 2018 election before they created the regulations to finalize putting the speed cameras in place.

Eighteen months later, after taking over from the Liberals, Ford’s government tabled regulations that allowed cities to start fining drivers and made the system a reality.

Del Duca said it was the Ford government that was in charge when the regulations came into effect, not him.

In a statement sent to Global News, he said that in 2017, he “did express that we needed to make sure we got this right,” referring to the program’s implementation.

“In September of this year, after hearing loud and clear from our residents, it was evident that there was too much of a financial burden placed on residents at a time of affordability challenges and that we need to focus our attention on getting the real criminals invading our neighbourhoods,” Del Duca added.

“The safety and well-being of all residents remains a top priority for the City of Vaughan, and for me as Mayor.”

The effectiveness of the automated speed cameras shot back to the top of the news agenda at the start of this month, as Ford ranted against them and claimed they didn’t work in their primary goal of slowing drivers.

“It’s just a tax grab, and they should take out those cameras, all of them,” Ford said on Sept. 9. “If you want to slow down traffic in school, you put the big, huge signs, big flashing lights, crossing area, people will slow down. This is nothing but a tax grab.”

He claimed the cameras were a way to raise revenue for cities, instead of slowing down drivers.

“I’m all about public safety, I’m against taxing the death out of people,” he said. “What? Five kilometres over? I guess everyone’s breaking the law every day. Get rid of the speed cameras, or I’m going to do it for them.”

Ford praised Del Duca for moving to scrap the policy he once helped to create.

“I’m proud of Mayor Del Duca,” he said on Sept. 16. “There’s so many ways to reduce and slow down traffic (other than) gouging people when they go three kilometres over the speed limit. It’s unfortunate some mayors decided to go down that avenue, but we’ll work with the mayors.”

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