The Government of Saskatchewan announced revenue made from photo radar will now be shared with communities across the province for traffic safety initiatives.
Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw have most of the radar cameras in the province and currently share around $4 million a year from tickets. Now, half of that money will be shared to other municipalities.
“Most of them are about school safety for our kids around there. How can you go wrong with that,” said Joe Hargrave the Minister in charge of SGI.
The first $500,000 of revenue has gone out to 27 Saskatchewan communities for infrastructure like cross walks and digital speed display signs. However in the Queen City, Regina Mayor Michael Fougere said it is difficult to give up some of that revenue.
“We have a long list of programs that we would like to do and knowing that historically we had received this money because it had been collected here, we had planned for that so this is discouraging,” said Fougere. “We've told the province we are concerned and we will continue to talk to them about putting the money back into the jurisdiction where the fines were collected.”
The first photo radar cameras were set up as a pilot program by the province, and now Hargrave said it is only fair that that revenue is shared throughout Saskatchewan.
“A lot of people travel from Estevan, Pense, from Moose Jaw, from Prince Albert , from Ituna, from Yorkton. They travel to Regina and Saskatoon and through Moose Jaw, they get tickets and they like to see their money come back to their community," said Hargrave.
The province is currently deciding whether to add more photo radar machines throughout Saskatchewan, which could be a way for Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw to recover some lost revenues if more communities add radar in the future.
With files from CTV's Wayne Mantyka
