A month after the province passed legislation allowing municipalities to use image-capturing enforcement — red light cameras and photo radar — Saint John is ready to explore whether or not the technology is right for the city.
The city wants to study the potential use of the enforcement tool with the goal of identifying “true benefits and costs” associated with the technology, Tim O’Reilly, director of public works, said.
“So the technology itself is going to have a cost to it, in terms of the infrastructure, but also to look after the infrastructure [and] administer it,” he said.
A recent recommendation to the city’s public safety committee passed with unanimous approval, asking council to recommend that the Fundy Regional Service Commission — which provides services across various municipalities — study the “business case” for the technology.
“We want to compare what that cost is for that infrastructure and administration around some of the benefits of improving road safety but also comparing other traditional costs of enforcement,” O’Reilly said, “like the use of police officers and some other measures to introduce physical traffic calming.”
The recommendation pushes the proposal to the regional service commission because the benefits would span further than one municipality.
Saint John has seen residents’ complaints about speeding triple since 2020, O’Reilly said. The city has since brought in speed cushions and speed-limit reductions in some areas.
Saint John city staff are pushing council to recommend a study be done to explore the costs and benefits of installing red light cameras.
The topic was previously floated in an October council meeting.
O’Reilly’s presentation noted that speeding violations in provinces with cameras have been reduced by 77 per cent since 2016, and crashes have been reduced by roughly 20 per cent in three years.
The recommendation would still need council approval before moving forward.
Prohibitive cost a barrier
Municipalities have been pushing for red light cameras to be available for a decade, Brittany Merrifield, president of the Union of New Brunswick Municipalities, said.
But when the legislation passed, most of the province’s major municipalities weren’t in a hurry to use the technology, with many saying they had no plans to implement traffic cameras.
This is still true for the cities of Bathurst, Edmunston, Moncton and Miramichi, according to their communications departments.
“I think the real issue is that the cost can be prohibitive,” Merrifield said.
“Before moving towards that, we want to be sure of how the technology works and the real key here is what the revenue sharing looks like.”
Both Merrifield and O’Reilly say the province collects 100 per cent of revenue from fines levied under the Motor Vehicle Act, even though “the municipality is bearing costs through public safety, such as police officers, equipment,” Merrifield said.
“So municipalities are asking for those fines to actually be returned to the municipalities.”
In October, saint John Mayor Donna Reardon sent a letter to the province asking it to share 50 per cent of the revenue from Motor Vehicle fines with the municipality.
Reardon said that Public Safety Minister Robert Gauvin responded in a letter that said the province is interested in engaging with city staff to discuss the matter further.
Allan Dearing, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, said in an email to CBC News that “it has no plans to divert fine revenues, generally, from funding provincial programs to municipal ones.”
The shared revenue would potentially offset some of the costs of the technology, should it be implemented, O’Reilly said, and fund some of the costs of other traffic-calming measures. But a business-case examination would consider different scenarios.
“So even in a case where there is no revenue sharing, is there an overall benefit for our community and frankly other communities within our region and the province to implement this technology,” O’Reilly said.
In October, Elizabeth Fraser, spokesperson for the City of Fredericton, said the city was waiting for finalized regulations from the province. In a recent statement, she said the city is currently reviewing next steps but did not provide additional information.
Dieppe’s spokesperson said the municipality is reviewing legislation before proceeding.
Potential for police resources
Some councillors have said the technology could potentially free up policing resources.
Sgt. Matthew Weir, spokesperson for Saint John police, sees the potential in the technology, in that it could prevent accidents by acting as a deterrent.
“I know in other areas that I’ve been, where they’ve had cameras in place, for the most part the public are very aware that the cameras are there … so just that knowledge will prevent those violations from occurring in that area,” he said.
While Weir does see the benefit to the community, he is uncertain about what it would mean for police resources.
“We go to different areas if we know there’s an issue ongoing, and we’ll enforce in different areas,” he said.
“They may very well prevent significant accidents that could cause a lot of damages or significant injuries. That’s the value I see in it. I don’t know from my perspective if we will free up a significant amount of resources.”
