Transportation committee to debate photo radar
Ottawa city council has punted a much-anticipated debate on photo radar to its transportation committee.
River Coun. Riley Brockington wanted councillors to formally request that the provincial government allow municipalities the option of using photo radar on local streets. It would follow similar requests from councils in Toronto, Hamilton and York Region.
But motions that go directly to council don’t allow for public delegations, and that rubbed some councillors the wrong way.
Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Keith Egli, who chairs the transportation committee, said photo radar is a divisive issue that requires more consideration before the city makes a “fundamental change” to how it conducts traffic enforcement.
“That’s a discussion we need to have with the public,” he said.
Mayor Jim Watson supported the motion to send the photo-radar discussion to committee.
“There are people passionately for it and against it,” he said. “It didn’t make any sense for us to leapfrog directly to council without going to the transportation committee so that the public and experts can offer their opinion whether we should even be asking for the power.”
Brockington says he has no issue with the transportation committee’s taking it up.
He’s in favour of public consultation but says he brought his motion to committee to strike while the iron was hot.
“I thought, if Toronto was putting pressure on the premier and the provincial government, that Ottawa should at least have its voice heard, as well,” he said.
He doesn’t sit on the transportation committee, so the issue is out of his hands now, he says.
“At the end of the day, what I have forced the city to do is look in the mirror and say, ‘Is speeding an issue? And if it is, are we employing every possible option available to us to address this matter?’ ” Brockington said.
“I hear non-stop that this is an issue, and so I want to use whatever tools are available to help improve public safety.”
Egli said staff will produce a report for discussion at the committee’s May 4 meeting.