Red light camera revenue not yet used for road safety fund, audit finds
City managers say ticket revenue fell short of projections after pandemic
Ottawa's auditor general has found the city's red light cameras generated $41 million over four years, from 2021 to 2024, but they have yet to contribute money to a reserve fund for projects that make roads safer.
Despite adding an extra 24 cameras after 2020 to automatically ticket vehicles that run red lights, revenues fell short of projections, according to a new report from the office of Auditor General Nathalie Gougeon.
The City of Ottawa has been using red light cameras for 25 years. Back in 2019, the city was updating its road safety action plan and was about to also roll out speed cameras, known as automated speed enforcement.
Members of the last city council wanted revenue from the new speed cameras, "in addition to revenues from new red light cameras installed beyond 2020," to go toward measures that could prevent injuries and deaths from collisions.
City management told the auditor they didn't expect that to affect the existing situation. Staff decided internally that any amount up to $11.75 million would continue to go to the city's annual operating budget, while $3 million would go to the Ottawa Police Service to help it close a budget gap. Any additional revenue was to be transferred to the road safety reserve fund.
Then the pandemic hit and fewer drivers were on the road. Their behaviour also changed, managers told the auditor. For instance, 77 cameras led to 42,495 tickets in 2024, down nearly 14,000 from the year before, the audit found.
The city has yet to exceed that $11.75-million threshold, the audit found.
The auditor's office said if that 2019 direction from council had been interpreted differently to include any revenue generated from newly installed red light cameras, approximately $10.7 million in gross revenue could have been added to the reserve fund.
"Not allocating net new revenues generated from new red light cameras installed after 2020 to the dedicated road safety reserve fund means that these funds will not be used exclusively for road safety issues," said the audit.
"This can impact the level of public trust in the program as well as limit road safety outcomes that could be achieved through road safety initiatives funded by red light camera revenues."
According to Gougeon's audit, city management will review how revenue from the red light camera program gets allocated to ensure the process is in line with both "base budget allocations" and council's expectations.
As for revenue from the speed cameras, management confirmed all of their net revenues are going into the reserve fund for road safety. The auditor said this totalled $5 million in 2023 and $29 million in 2024.
The report will be tabled at the city's audit committee on April 29.
READ | The office of the auditor general's full report:
Corrections
- An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that cameras installed after 2020 generated more than $41 million in revenue. In fact, all red light cameras generated that total over a four-year period. The story also incorrectly stated funds were diverted from road safety into the city's general operating budget and to police. In fact, that practice had been in place for years, and a 2019 council direction suggested only revenues from new red light cameras installed after 2020 be used for the city's road safety action plan. The corrected version also removes comments from city councillors who were under the mistaken impression that the money hadn't been used as intended.Apr 29, 2025 5:04 PM EDT