Could photo radar for speed enforcement be coming to the Municipality of Grey Highlands?
Grey Highlands council decided to approach the idea slowly after it received a recommendation to consider photo radar enforcement from its Road Safety Community Partnership Committee.
At its meeting on Oct. 4, council applied the brakes to a committee’s recommended resolution that called for council to direct staff to work with an outside agency to implement photo radar. Council instead voted to receive information about the possibility, rather than moving ahead on implementation.
Coun. Joel Loughead, a member of the road safety committee, said the recommended resolution was meant to suggest council speak to LAS (Local Authority Services, a branch of the Association of Municipalities that provides procurement to municipalities) to get more information about photo radar.
The road safety committee recently heard from LAS on the possibility.
“It’s simply to learn more about automated speed enforcement,” said Loughead.
Mayor Paul McQueen pointed out the wording of the resolution (full text: “That council direct staff to work with LAS for the purpose of implementing Automated Speed Enforcement in the Municipality of Grey Highlands”) and said the wording needed to be changed to reflect the intent explained by Loughead.
Council agreed and the resolution was amended to state that council would invite LAS to provide information about photo radar.
McQueen also noted that the topic has come up in the past.
“Last time there was a notice of motion to look into (photo radar) and it was very, very expensive,” he said.
Chris Cornfield, director of transportation and public spaces, provided further clarity and said LAS would provide procurement for the processing of photo radar enforcement. Cornfield said photo radar video must be reviewed by an enforcement officer, it is not something municipal staff are able to do. He said LAS is running a pilot project with the City of Barrie that could potentially provide the enforcement processing service. He also noted that LAS would also procure companies to provide the equipment for photo radar.
The resolution to invite LAS to provide more information on photo radar passed in a 5-2 vote with Deputy Mayor Dane Nielsen and coun. Tom Allwood opposed.
