Councillors seek to bridge photo radar funding gap

In response to a multimillion-dollar revenue shortfall facing the Calgary Police Service this year, four Calgary councillors are calling on the city to look for ways to help fill the funding gap created by the Alberta government's decision to restrict the use of photo radar.

The motion from Sonya Sharp, Jennifer Wyness, Terry Wong and Andre Chabot passed a technical review at the executive committee on Tuesday, meaning it will advance to city council on Feb. 25.

The proposal directs administration to offer support to the Cal- gary police commission to assess potential options to account for CPS's $28-million revenue shortfall in 2025.

It also directs administration to bring forward a report with different funding options to the March 18 meeting, if the commission deems it necessary, and asks for a report on Calgary's speed and traffic calming measures, including annual costs and comparisons to gauge photo radar's effectiveness.

"We really need to send a signal to the province," Sharp said Tuesday. "If these restrictions jeopardize public safety, we need to push back."

The councillors' motion comes after additional provincial restrictions were imposed on automated traffic enforcement, and with the impending removal of photo radar from provincially controlled highways as of April 1.

Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen announced in December that the province would slash 70 per cent of photo radar sites throughout Alberta by this spring. That would bring the number of photo radar locations in the province down from 2,200 to about 650.

"While intended as a tool for safety, in far too many cases photo radar penalizes hard-working Albertans without improving the safety of our roads," Dreeshen said when announcing the change in December.

Dreeshen, whose office did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, has long called police use of photo radar along ring roads a "cash cow" - a claim Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld has criticized as "simplistic."

Last week, Neufeld said the loss of photo radar will limit traffic enforcement abilities and potentially make it more dangerous for officers to patrol the highways. He cited CPS statistics that showed photo radar has reduced collisions at the 20 most deployed locations in the city.

Wyness, who is one of council's two representatives on the police commission alongside Wong, said the shortfall could force the police service to reduce overtime hours or cut hiring and critical operations, which would put public safety at risk.

Speaking to reporters, the Ward 2 councillor argued if the province doesn't rescind its purge of photo radar, council may need to increase property taxes next year. She noted that $28 million would equate to a 1.1 per cent tax hike.

In a statement Tuesday, the Calgary police commission said it believes fine revenue should be removed from future police budgets to ensure public safety remains the only focus of traffic enforcement.

Calgary's annual police budget includes an estimate of how much fine revenue is likely each year, based on previous years. CPS received $15 million less from fine revenue than it budgeted for in 2024.

"We knew the province's photo radar changes would significantly increase that shortfall in 2025," the commission stated.

The province shares 40 per cent of the revenue received from traffic fines with municipalities, the commission said, adding that Calgary's city council has traditionally approved using the funding to reduce the tax dollars needed to pay for policing.

"For us, the revenue impact of the photo radar changes is not nearly as important as the community safety implications of losing such an important tool that has proved effective at reducing the number and severity of collisions where it has been properly deployed," the commission said.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek accused the province of defunding Calgary's police.

"We know that a chunk of that revenue stream from photo radar goes toward keeping our police service intact," she told reporters. "And at a time when public safety is a top priority for this government, to take that funding away is mind-boggling."

sstrasser@postmedia.com