Photo enforcement in the City of Cold Lake has caught a number of drivers violating traffic laws red-handed, but the program is up for renewal and council isn't sure whether or not they're ready to sign the dotted line.
On Tuesday, Jan. 16, city council discussed the future of the traffic enforcement program, comparing the dollar signs to overall safety.
One item Coun. Chris Vining noted, was the location of the cameras and how it reflected the amount Global Traffic Group Ltd. was making.
In August 2018 for example, there were 99 stop sign/red light infractions, and over 58.72 hours spent on these types of violations. That month, the company was paid over $24,000.
Vining compared that number to the overall time spent in school zones.
For the same month, the company spent 11.37 hours in these areas, which is concerning for Vining.
“I find it interesting that their fines issued were the highest when they spent the highest amount of time on stop signs. I don't know about anybody else on council, but my idea of doing this wasn't to reduce people from rolling a stop sign,” he expressed. “We were talking about speeding, speeding in playgrounds and school zones. We were talking about safety for kids and safety in the community.”
The cost of failing to stop at a stop sign or red light through the photo enforcement program is about $370.
Every month, the priority and location of the cameras changes.
In July 2017, over 22-hours was spent on school zones, with 187 violations. Almost 11-hours were spent on stop signs/red light infractions, resulting in 160 fines. That month, Global Traffic Group made over $30,000.
However, CAO Kevin Nagoya said Vining's concern is a prime example as to why their contract with Global Traffic Group is being discussed.
He said, “The issue is whether it's impacting the issue directly or indirectly. In the report, you can see the overall traffic incidents are down by 19 per cent, based on the incidences themselves. Is it directly related to photo enforcement? You don't know.”
According to Nagoya, the program runs for about 40-hours per month, and regardless of how many tickets are handed out, the city still pays a monthly fee for the service.
From August 2016 to November 2017, Global Traffic Group issued over $600,000 in fines. Over $188,000 has yet to be paid.
The total net revenue for the City of Cold Lake during that time frame, once all tickets have been paid, is over $137,000.
This revenue includes the payments made to Global, ringing-in at over $238,000, plus any outstanding or unpaid tickets, the estimated retention by the provincial government on those unpaid tickets, and any fines that may have been quashed or set aside in court.
“We implemented the program to see what this was going to do for the community and what the community's take is on it. The funding is not budgeted as net revenue in your operating budget,” said Nagoya.
If council decides to cancel the contract, they would have to give the company notice by Feb. 28.
The city will discuss the issue at a future meeting. Nagoya explained there will be certain areas of the topic regarding the contract that will be closed to the public.
