The City of Cold Lake is letting their photo enforcement contract fizzle out, after failing to see the results they had been hoping for.
In 2016, the city contracted Global Traffic Group Ltd. to provide photo enforcement within Cold Lake. Their hope was to target speeding in school zones. After reviewing the ticketing patterns earlier this year, they noticed in some cases the company was focusing on stop sign infractions instead.
During their corporate priorities meeting on Tuesday, June 19, council determined it just isn’t worth it.
Their current contract with Global Traffic Group Ltd. expires in October, and they plan on letting it lapse. They will review other programs available, and discuss other options for traffic control.
Since signing on with Global Traffic Group, over $889,000 in fines have been issued, with only $639,000 being paid. That means there is an outstanding amount owed to the city to a tune of about $160,000 after the province’s $80,900 cut.
Around $227,000 is paid in retention to the province overall, with the majority of the funding going to Global Traffic Group Ltd. In total, the company contracted to do the job received over $353,422.
Coun. Chris Vining said it feels like “everybody else gets paid before we get paid.”
For example, regardless of whether someone pays their fine, Global Traffic Group Ltd. still receives their payout.
“It seems like the bulk of the missing revenue is to us,” expressed Vining.
Coun. Bob Buckle agreed, “It just seems like an unfair take and an unfair process when we have the means and the tools locally to handle what the primary concern is, which is making sure that we have safety-related zones covered and enforced.”
According to CAO Kevin Nagoya, revenue was never a top priority when taking on the program. Instead, the focus was on improving safety, which is why the city introduced the Infrastructure Safety Fund.
Since starting photo traffic enforcement in the city, about $58,000 has been given to the municipality, which was directly placed in the fund for future use.
The money is used to pay for traffic safety programs that are outside of the city’s budget.
“They were held for traffic safety initiatives,” Nagoya detailed.
Councillors agreed it was time to let the contract expire, and take another look at how they approach the issue.
For some councillors, the reason for their decision to end their contract was because it just didn’t seem like it was doing the job it was meant for.
“It was intended to develop a culture change in our traffic, but when I look at 2016’s numbers versus today, I’m not seeing a huge culture shift in the number of tickets and people speeding,” Coun. Jurgen Grau expressed. “I’m not seeing the impact I was hoping to see.”
Vining described trying to justify the program to taxpayers as “embarrassing.”
“I’m sorry I ever pushed into this thing, because when you look at the numbers, we’re talking about 50 per cent of violations coming from stop signs. I look at some of the intersections they’re doing and they’re not danger points in our community, not when you could be set up in a high-impact residential zone or school areas... Regardless of the money, this isn’t changing anything.”
