Ontario’s transportation minister has promised vehicles assigned to Doug Ford’s cabinet ministers won’t be caught speeding again, after municipal cameras slapped them with more than $3,300 in fines.
As Global News previously reported, vehicles registered to cabinet ministers were snapped speeding by cameras 23 times over the past three years, including one travelling at 70 km/h in a 40 zone.
Ford has said the infractions are “unacceptable” and that the staff and ministers driving have repaid the fines from their own pocket.
The documents obtained by Global News do not disclose which ministers the vehicles were assigned to. They’re often driven by staff rather than the ministers themselves.
Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, who is set to table legislation to remove speed cameras on the behest of Premier Ford, said cabinet needed to set a better example.
“We must follow the law and we must follow the rules on the road, and we expect and need to ensure that those rules are followed,” he told Global News.
“We have to ensure that we are respecting the road and the speed limits that are imposed upon it and will continue to do so. And it won’t happen again.”
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Separately, one cabinet minister assigned vehicle was recorded by its internal monitoring systems travelling at more than 150 km/h on 12 separate occasions, prompting a stunt driving notification to the Ministry of Transportation.
Ford has also called that incident “unacceptable.”
The unknown individual driving at the time appears to still work for the government, and the premier’s office will not say if they still drive cabinet ministers’ vehicles.
The speeding incidents come as the Ford government moves forward with a plan to ban municipal speed cameras, which the premier has described as a “tax grab” that he claimed doesn’t work to slow traffic down.
Mayors, municipalities, police chiefs and school boards have all written to the premier, asking him to change course. They’ve suggested adjusting, instead of banning, automated speed enforcement.
On Wednesday, as she pushed back against the plan to cut speed cameras, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow hit out at Ford’s government over the speeding infractions.
“I notice one thing, that provincial ministers’ vehicles have been (more than) 20 violations, over $3,000 fines,” she said to reporters.
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Ford government vehicle recorded at stunt driving speeds on Ontario highways
“Twelve times in the past three years, some were caught 50 km/h over the speed limit, as high as 162 km/h. By God, no wonder they don’t like speed cameras because they catch them while they’re breaking the law. One hundred and sixty-two km, my God, 50 km/h over the limit 12 times in the past three years.”
The stunt-driving speeds were recorded by the vehicle itself and not caught by speed cameras.
The premier and his transportation minister said last month they would table legislation to ban municipalities from operating speed cameras, a system Ford repeatedly referred to as a “tax grab.”
When the legislation is tabled, it will complete a policy walkback from the premier who introduced the regulations in 2019 that govern speed cameras in the first place, bringing into force a law written by the previous Liberal government.
A 2022 regulation also introduced by Ford’s government created the penalty structure for vehicles caught speeding. It decreed drivers would pay $5 per kilometre over the limit up to 19 km/h over, with higher penalties for going 20, 30 or 50 kilometres over.
Ford has complained that the speed cameras are too sensitive, issuing tickets for minor infractions.
“I’ll use the stats just in Toronto because I know 32,000 tickets for going two kilometres over, four kilometres over, sometimes 10, 15 kilometres over — in three months,” the premier previously said.
None of the tickets given to minister vehicles were going less than 11 kilometres over the limit, and the average speed of 17 was also above Ford’s example.
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