Ottawa·NewOttawa’s automated speed enforcement cameras have been turned off and will soon be removed, the city has confirmed.Cameras turned off Nov. 14, to be replaced with new school zone signs, other measuresCBC News · Posted: Nov 25, 2025 12:22 PM EST | Last Updated: 8 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.These signs have been removed, and so will the cameras themselves after Bill 56 went into effect earlier this month. (Buntola Nou/CBC)Ottawa’s automated speed enforcement cameras have been turned off and will soon be removed, the city has confirmed.In an update to the mayor and members of council Tuesday, the city’s general manager of public works, Alain Gonthier, said the cameras were no longer active and signs notifying motorists of their presence have been removed.Removal of the cameras themselves, which are owned and operated by a third-party vendor, “will proceed in the near term as part of the transition process,” Gonthier wrote in a memo.Despite unanimous support from Ottawa city councillors to keep the cameras in school zones, and evidence that they’re effective in slowing traffic and reducing collisions, the passage of Bill 56 revoked the legal authority of municipalities to deploy the technology in community safety zones, including near schools.Ottawa would have had 84 active cameras active this fall, 70 of them in school zones. The rest were or would have been installed near parks and playgrounds, in rural villages and on notoriously high-speed roads.Ottawa speed cameras to keep ticketing until Nov. 14 As of Nov. 14, cities including Ottawa are no longer permitted to issue automated speeding tickets, though fines issued up to that date are “valid and enforceable,” Gonthier wrote.Instead, Bill 56 requires the city to install new “oversized” signs in school zones. City staff will install the signs at former camera sites “as soon as operationally feasible,” according to Gonthier.$210M road safety fundThe province has established a “road safety initiatives fund” that will disburse $210 million over two years to municipalities that have been forced to shut down their speed cameras. Further details about the allocation of the fund will be revealed early next year, but as part of the application process municipalities will be required to report how much revenue they earned from automated speed enforcement, and explain how that money is being used.The province has announced some immediate funding, including just over $4 million for Ottawa. That money must be used for road safety initiatives at the former speed camera sites, including temporary targeted enforcement by police, traffic calming infrastructure such as speed bumps and raised crosswalks, and improved signage.City staff are currently working on “a high-level traffic calming plan” for each site in Ottawa, Gonthier said.Automated speed enforcement earned the city $20 million in revenue as of August, and $31 million in 2024. According to the city, compliance with posted speed limits in automated speed enforcement zones rose from 16 per cent to 81 per cent in the first three years of the program, while high-end speeding plummeted from 14 per cent to less than one per cent.
Ottawa’s speed cameras go dark
