Was red light camera revenue really just a cash grab?
The muddled way in which this policy has been implemented would make some think so. Ottawa needs a more transparent process to get the money into road safety programs.
By Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen
Published May 06, 2025
Ottawa city councillors have been working awfully hard to convince the public that the city’s red light camera program is not a cash cow, despite an auditor general’s report suggesting that it is. If anything, the situation is worse than the AG indicated.
Here’s what you need to know.
In 2019, city council approved a motion saying “all revenue from automated enforcement” — including automated speed enforcement and red light cameras installed since 2020 — should be allocated to the city’s road safety program.
The meaning of “all” would seem clear, but when it comes to red light cameras, city staff interpreted “all” to mean “none.” In the four years from 2021 to 2024, the city pulled in $41,309,146 in gross revenue from its red light cameras. Virtually all of it went either to the city’s general operating budget or the Ottawa police budget, Auditor General Nathalie Gougeon’s report said.
Had staff followed council’s orders, some $10.7 million in revenue from new red light cameras would have been transferred to the road safety program, the AG found.
At last week’s audit committee meeting, city financial staff attempted to counter that analysis by pointing out that “all revenue” really meant all net revenue, the money left over after the city’s costs. Sadly, the program was not meeting its targets so there was no such revenue.
City staff would have councillors and the public believe it was abundantly clear back in 2019 that the city’s costs would be deducted from the red light revenue. The report in 2019 had a line saying there would be no cost to the existing budget.
Even if one were to accept that implication, city staff’s next step was dubious, at best.
City staff rather generously assumed that annual revenue for the red light cameras would be $11.75 million, even though in 2020 it had been just $6.7 million. The road safety contribution would only kick in once the city revenue, minus the police share, exceeded $11.75 million. It hasn’t happened yet, despite increasing the number of cameras from 57 to 77.
The AG’s report doesn’t say how much revenue was actually left over after the city’s real costs, but it’s a rather large number. In response to a media inquiry, city financial staff say net revenue from red light cameras from 2021 to 2024 inclusive was $30.3 million. That’s definitely in the cash cow zone. Surely some of it could have been spent on road safety.
Meanwhile, the city’s much larger speed enforcement camera program is more transparent. Over four years, it has taken in $57.8 million, covered its expenses and paid $28.3 million into a road safety reserve. (If one wants to be generous, it could be said that all the speed camera money is for road safety, since operating the program is intended to reduce speeding.)
However, Gougeon’s report on red light cameras caused significant public reaction and red faces among councillors who like to point to the road safety program as a big benefit created by the red light cameras.
Gougeon’s report said the failure to put the funds in the reserve “means that these funds will not be used exclusively for road safety initiatives. This can impact the level of public trust in the program.”
And so it should. Some councillors were clearly surprised to discover that red light camera money didn’t go to road safety. Others seemed to know all about it.
To be fair, people should have expected that the city would recoup the costs of the program. Despite the wording of the 2019 motion, it’s unlikely that the intent was to drill a hole in the city budget.
The problem is that staff created a self-serving formula that subverts council’s own 2019 motion, leaving the red light program contributing no money for road safety. Most councillors appear quite content with that. Nothing to see here, folks. Drive on.
The AG has recommended that the city revisit the way it allocates red light camera money. Splendid idea. A staff report is expected late this year. This time, let’s try an honest approach.
Randall Denley is an Ottawa journalist and author. Contact him at [email protected]
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/red-light-camera-cash-grab
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