Saskatchewan may experience an uptick in speeding, accidents, and hazardous road conditions as the province navigates negotiations for a new speed camera vendor contract, experts warn.
SGI announced on June 25 that speed cameras would be temporarily inactive due to the vendor’s decision to terminate the contract prematurely at the end of May. The vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems Limited, operating as Verra Mobility Systems, had deployed nine cameras in Saskatchewan since 2020 to monitor speeding on highways, construction zones, and school areas in Saskatoon, Regina, and Moose Jaw.
While the cameras are offline, SGI reassured that police enforcement of speed limits remains in place as usual. In the absence of speed cameras, Ontario serves as a case study where the cameras were deactivated following a government ban by Premier Doug Ford, resulting in increased speeding incidents and fatal crashes.
Matti Siemiatycki, a geography and planning professor at the University of Toronto, highlighted the impact of the camera removals in Ontario, citing a surge in speeding due to decreased enforcement. He emphasized the effectiveness of cameras in deterring speeding behaviors, referencing a study by Toronto’s SickKids hospital showing a significant reduction in speeding in school zones with camera enforcement.
Expressing concerns about road safety in Saskatchewan during the camera downtime, Siemiatycki stressed the importance of speed enforcement in preventing accidents and fatalities. Chief Robert Duttchen of the Corman Park Police Service echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing the role of speed cameras in influencing driver behavior and raising challenges faced by police in rural areas with limited resources for speed enforcement.