Latest news with #Olivia Chow
CTV News
6 days ago
- Automotive
- CTV News
‘Notify the people faster': Council to consider capping speed camera tickets before first notice arrives
Toronto city council is considering a new rule that would prevent drivers from racking up multiple speed camera tickets at a single location before receiving their first warning in the mail. The proposal comes amid concerns from Coun. Anthony Perruzza that the cameras are more of a 'speed trap' than a safety tool. If approved, it would cap how many infractions a vehicle owner can receive from a single location before being formally notified. In a feasibility report released last week, city staff say the change could cost $32,000 to implement and would likely reduce revenue by an estimated $520,000 each time mobile cameras are relocated — though they stress the program was never meant to generate money. 'A faster notification period,' Chow says The feasibility report also says that approximately 5,800 of the 94,243 tickets issued in the first month of ASE enforcement at 150 locations went to repeat offenders. If council approves the change, the cameras would have to be reprogrammed to limit multiple fines against a single plate before a notice is delivered. Speaking to reporters ahead of today's meeting, Mayor Olivia Chow says she supports speeding up the notification process in addition to her previous motion to install larger signage. 'What I want to see is a faster notification period,' she told reporters. 'If we could actually notify the people faster, then they would say… that's fair, right?' It should be noted that Chow's separate motion to install more visible signs was approved last month by council. It came following a proposal by Perruzza to pause all ticketing while city staff reviewed the program. That motion was defeated by council. City vehicles racking up tickets of their own While the debate over fairness continues, it's not just Toronto-area residents getting flagged by speed cameras. In a statement to CTV News Toronto last week, the City of Toronto acknowledged that its own fleet of vehicles have racked up 190 ASE tickets so far this year, amounting to more than $18,000 in fines. The city clarified that drivers — not taxpayers — are responsible for paying those tickets, and that the fines are not automatically waived. Technology 'doing what it's meant to do' Despite the criticism, multiple studies suggest ASE cameras are effective in changing driver behaviour. A 2020-2022 study by researchers at SickKids and Toronto Metropolitan University found a 45 per cent drop in drivers exceeding the speed limit near ASE locations. More recently in an email to CTV, the CAA also noted a positive trend in driver habits revealing that 73 per cent of Ontario drivers say they slow down when approaching a speed camera. 'When drivers choose to slow down or change their routes because of photo radar, it means the technology is doing what it's meant to,' said Michael Stewart of CAA South Central Ontario. Speed camera at O'Connor Drive earns highest tickets this year Some camera locations have become notorious for ticket volumes. City data shows the most ticket-heavy camera in 2025 is on O'Connor Drive west of Lankin Blvd., where nearly 19,000 tickets have been issued so far. Council is expected to debate the proposed cap and other possible adjustments to the ASE program over the next two days.
CBC
6 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Toronto has 6 months to meet terms of housing agreement with Ottawa, minister says
Toronto has six months to meet the terms of a housing agreement with Ottawa, the federal housing minister said — a deadline that comes as the city risks losing $30 million in federal housing funds. Minister Gregor Robertson said it was "disappointing" that Toronto city council voted against allowing sixplexes citywide last month, which was a key condition of its deal with the federal government. "We need Toronto, as the biggest city in Canada, to be really leading the charge in solving the housing crisis we have," Robertson said in an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Wednesday. Robertson did not say whether Toronto risks losing some of the federal funding it was promised if it sticks to its sixplex plan, but he said the government will review its agreement with the city in January. He said he sent a letter to Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow this week that lays out these terms. "We've got six months ahead of us to sort this all out," he said. "Certainly, my expectation is that Toronto will respect the agreement and the commitments that they came up with, and we're going to see that delivered." CBC Toronto has reached out to the city for comment. Toronto on track to meet housing goal, Chow says Toronto city council voted in June to allow sixplexes in only nine wards and give other wards the chance to opt-in. In his letter to Chow, provided to CBC Toronto, Robertson wrote he was disappointed about the decision, which he wrote "goes against the level of ambition that was committed to in our Housing Accelerator Fund Agreement by the City of Toronto." "I will underscore the possibility of reduced funding if the City of Toronto does not present solutions that ensures the spirit of the agreement is met," reads the letter from Monday. In March, then-federal housing minister Nate Erskine-Smith warned Chow that any deviation from a citywide policy permitting sixplexes would result in 25 per cent less federal funding. That amounts to almost $30 million of the total $118 million that Ottawa has pledged annually to Toronto from its Housing Accelerator Fund, a program that provides incentive funding for cities to build more homes. Chow responded to Robertson's letter on Wednesday, writing the city is on track to exceed its target of building 60,980 homes over the course of the three-year agreement with Ottawa. "We are making progress on multiple fronts: zoning, building, cutting red tape, and protecting existing homes," she wrote in the letter, obtained by CBC Toronto. Chow wrote she has added a motion to city council's meeting on Wednesday to waive development charges for sixplexes "to make these projects more financially viable and easier to build." Some residents had opposed building sixplexes in Toronto at a city planning and housing committee meeting held in June before the council vote. One resident said multiplexes have caused many issues, including problems related to parking and privacy. Robertson told Metro Morning there is "a lot of misinformation" about sixplexes, which he called relatively gentle density.
CTV News
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Biidaasige Park: Mayor Chow
CP24's Arda Zakarian speaks with Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow about the city's largest new park to open in a generation.
