By James Matthews

Dysart council got a clearer picture of what’s involved in obtaining and using automated speed enforcement on its roads.

Tanner Watt, a municipal program specialist at Local Authority Services (LAS), told township council March 25 that automated speed enforcement is a fairly simple concept. A camera is situated at roadside and takes a photo of any car that moves faster than the posted speed limit.

The photo captures the car’s license plate and the registered owner is ticketed and dinged with the applicable penalty.

Cameras are positioned in Community Safety Zones or school zones.

“It’s proven to be a pretty effective tool for reducing speed,” Watt said. “One of the nice things about it is it is entirely in municipal control. This is one of the few enforcement tools that you as a municipality and as a council are able control yourselves.”

The municipality will be able to lease the enforcement cameras from LAS. The company will install, calibrate, and certify them. The monthly bill to lease a camera is about $3,500. Then there are ticket processing fees.

“Response to any vandalism or any maintenance issues, that’s all on us,” he said.

LAS has been establishing ticket processing centres. They have one set up and another will be operating in a few months, he said. Tickets from a number of municipalities across the province are processed at the centres.

“We are trying to cluster municipalities just to help support each other as they develop these programs,” Watt said.

Municipalities can avail of a contract for a term as short as six months.

Offence notices are under the purview of Provincial Offences Act courts.

“This is the same court that’s supposed to give us back money now, right?” Mayor Murray Fearrey said. “We’re supposed to get a percentage of provincial fines now on our highways. We’ve never seen any for the last four years.”

He said Dysart used to collect as much as $40,000 from POA offences.

“I don’t know what’s happened to that,” Fearrey said.