A story that was published April 20 on BarrieToday about speed-camera tickets was based on an incorrect premise.
The story said a proposed $17 administrative penalty could be tacked on, or added, to the Barrie’s automated speed enforcement (ASE) camera tickets.
That is incorrect.
“The $17 is not added to the penalty of the ticket. It is an internal cost,” said Scott LaMantia, the city’s manager of marketing and communications. “The headline and the first line (in the story) say that it will tacked on to the ticket, which is not the case.
“If the city moves to an administrative penalty process, it will save the city money on processing," he added.
City councillors will consider a motion Tuesday night to approve the penalty to help pay for administering the ASE cameras system and save taxpayers money.
The $17 is the cost to the taxpayer to process the tickets under the administrative penalty versus the $55 it costs to process the ticket under the traditional court system.
Every 40,000 violations issued would cost the city $680,000 to process in the administrative penalty program, while it would cost $2.2 million in a traditional court, resulting in approximately $1.52 million in savings for the city.
Municipalities are granted authority under the Highway Traffic Act to require an administrative penalty related to ASE violations.
ASE is a system that uses a camera and a speed-measuring device to detect and capture images of the licence plates of vehicles travelling faster than the posted speed limit in school or community safety zones.
Barrie’s ASE cameras were located eastbound on Big Bay Point Road near Willow Landing and St. Michael the Archangel Catholic elementary schools, and southbound on Anne Street North, near Portage View and Nouvelle-Alliance schools, last Dec. 1.
The ASE cameras were moved to northbound Essa Road near Timothy Christian School, and westbound on Ardagh Road in the vicinity of Heritage Baptist Church, near the end of February.
More than 9,200 ASE tickets were processed for the initial three months of Barrie’s speed cameras program.
