Recent changes to the province’s photo radar rules could cost the Calgary police millions in annual revenue, with city taxpayers forking out more to cover policing, the mayor said.
On Monday, Alberta Minister of Transportation Devin Dreeshen, clad in a no-cash-cow apron at an Alberta steakhouse, said next April, the province would be restricting the deployment of photo radar across the province.
Later that day, Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld took exception to the province’s characterization of speed enforcement as a cash cow, citing its impact on improving road safety for drivers and other users.
The Calgary Police Commission said Tuesday that the budgetary aspect isn’t the main concern and that safety was critical.
“Our Commission would have liked to see the Calgary Police Service maintain its flexibility to use this technology as needed to meet our shared safety goals,” read a statement from the Calgary Police Commission.
“We hope the province will keep an open mind when assessing applications for photo radar to be used at locations outside of school, playground and construction zones, so that this important tool can still be used where the evidence supports a need for it.”
According to the CPC, the City of Calgary received $12 million in 2023 as its portion of photo radar enforcement. It was used to supplement the Calgary police budget. They said it was a drop from $17 million in 2022. Fine revenue overall has dropped 40 per cent since 2018, from $57.5 million in 2018 to $34.3 million in 2023.
In 2019, the province increased its share of fine revenue from cities.
The CPC, in its submission to Calgary city council during the budget deliberations, said that approximately eight per cent of the CPS budget is funded through fine revenue.
Budget impact to Calgarians
There’s already a $13 million to $15 million shortfall in fine revenue, according to the CPC, and this will blow another $12 million hole in that number.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said Tuesday that there’s going to be one group saddled with the responsibility of covering that fiscal gap: Calgary taxpayers. The City already had to dip into its fiscal stability reserve this year to help fund the overage on a new Calgary police gun range.
“What’s going to happen is the province is going to unload yet one more thing to us, and they will expect that we fund the police service to a greater level out of your property tax,” she said.
“So, this is the same story we’ve heard before: Province cuts something and they dump it on the municipal government.”
In the recent budget deliberations, the City of Calgary noted a $436 million annual municipal fiscal gap. That’s the compilation of services funded and provided by the City that fall under provincial or federal jurisdiction.
Further, the mayor said it creates a greater safety problem on the roads. She said she heard from the Calgary Fire Department that they’re concerned they’ll spend more time attending car crashes on higher-speed roads.
“I don’t understand what the province is doing. I also don’t understand them saying, Yeah, we’re going to cancel photo radar, but we have no more money for you,” she said.
“It’s basic. If you are speeding and you get a ticket, you deserve it. So, to have photo radar means that people who are breaking the law are then fined for it, and that fine revenue pays for your police service. It’s basic math.”
Minister Dreeshen said they would be auditing the use of photo radar to ensure it was meeting safety goals. The CPC said that data from the use of photo radar and intersection cameras show that the technology, when deployed properly, decreases the number and severity of collisions.
Last year, the province already mandated that photo radar vehicle units would have to be more visible on the roads, and also banned the use of it on the ring roads. As far back as 2019, the Alberta NDP also believed that photo radar was being used as a so-called “cash cow” by municipalities.
