Mayors eye red-light camera cash

Fair share of larger pot could help fill ‘endless need’ in police budgets

B.C. mayors are concerned their policing budgets could be strained if a new red-light camera revenuesharing deal with the province doesn’t swing in their favour.

“That money is really important to our police budget and we have an endless need for police resources,” said Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie. “It’s really important to our community safety programs.”

The provincial government has told municipalities that it intends to change the way revenue from fines is distributed, after the system is updated to catch speeding drivers on green and amber lights. The system currently nabs only drivers who run red lights.

The program took in about $58 million last year, but the government has been advised the take could go up to $89 million.

If the take goes up, municipalities will want their fair share.

“If they are activating intersection speed cameras, we will need some balanced way to share that (extra) money,” said Brodie. “We are installing HD cameras at certain intersections for about $2 million and we could use some money to get that going.”

Richmond currently receives between $1.5 million and $2.2 million a year from the program.

Vancouver stands to be either the biggest winner — or the biggest loser — when a new deal is struck.

The city has received an average of $13.1 million each year over the past three years, money that helps offset the city’s policing costs.

Almost half of the infractions caught by the system’s 140 intersection cameras are recorded in Vancouver.

The distribution of revenue is based on a formula that takes into account the investment that municipalities make in policing, not the number of tickets issued in that community.

City of Langley Mayor Ted Schaffer was wary of the revenue renegotiation.

“As a city, we’re concerned about anything the province may do in terms of clawing back,” he said. “We don’t want to see any more downloading of costs onto municipal government.”

The City of Langley received $472,000 in traffic fine revenue last year, which helped to fund three RCMP members.

Schaffer said that while the city ’s population remains stagnant, costs are on the rise.

“Costs are constantly passed onto us, and many senior bureaucrats don’t see that,” he said. “We can’t throw in a new apartment complex and hope that covers it.”

Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart was also concerned about the downloading of costs onto municipal governments, which have limited means of generating revenue compared with the provincial government.

“I suspect we’d all scream if this led to a reduction,” he said.

Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner said she wasn’t worried about the provincial government’s decision to revisit the revenue-sharing agreement, as long as the money given to municipalities is “going upward and not downward.”

Surrey receives about $6 million annually from the province, all of which goes to the RCMP budget.

“We’d be very concerned if that amount was diminished,” she said, adding the money helps to fund officers as well as education.

Hepner said escalating ICBC premiums are a persuasive reason to upgrade the cameras to catch speeding drivers.

“I’m for anything that prevents crashes in our intersections,” she said.

The City of Victoria is watching for details of the provincial government’s plans for camera revenue. That $2-million annual grant represents about four per cent of the city’s $54-million policing budget.

“We hope that this is a decision that will not remove much-needed revenue from local governments whose only means of raising general revenue are property taxes,” said Mayor Lisa Helps.

Neighbouring Saanich receives about $1.5 million a year through the program, which it uses to offset policing costs.

Prince George received just over $1 million last year, compared with $1.1 million in 2016. The money was used to offset policing costs, said a spokesman.

A relatively small number of intersections account for the bulk of red-light camera tickets handed out in B.C., according to a 2015 Postmedia analysis of ICBC data.

Figures showed that 25 intersections account for more than half of the 93,000 tickets issued during a three-year period between 2012 and 2014.

According to the data, the mostticketed intersection in the province was at Georgia and Denman, with 3,902 total red-light camera tickets over three years. Oak and 57th was a close second, at 3,852. Nordel Way and 84th Avenue in Delta was third at 3,172.

In 2011, the province increased the number of red-light cameras from 120 to 140 and moved existing cameras to higher-risk locations in Vancouver and Surrey.

That change increased the number of red-light tickets issued each year from around 20,000 to 30,000. It also increased the share of tickets given out in B.C.’s two largest cities.

Of the 93,000 total red-light camera tickets issued from 201214, nearly half, 45,000, were given out at intersections in the City of Vancouver. Surrey was a distant second at 12,000, followed by Burnaby at 7,600.

The B.C. government has set a deadline for consultations to conclude by the end of July.