{"id":201286,"date":"2025-10-09T23:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201286\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T23:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:19:11","slug":"wont-happen-again-minister-pledges-no-more-speeding-ontario-cabinet-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201286\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Won\u2019t happen again\u2019: Minister pledges no more speeding Ontario cabinet vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ontario\u2019s transportation minister has promised vehicles assigned to Doug Ford\u2019s cabinet ministers won\u2019t be caught speeding<\/a> again, after municipal cameras slapped them with more than $3,300 in fines.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As Global News previously reported<\/a>, vehicles registered to cabinet ministers were snapped speeding by cameras 23 times over the past three years, including one travelling at 70 km\/h in a 40 zone.<\/p>\n

Ford has said the infractions are \u201cunacceptable\u201d and that the staff and ministers driving have repaid the fines from their own pocket.<\/p>\n

The documents obtained by Global News do not disclose which ministers the vehicles <\/a>were assigned to. They\u2019re often driven by staff rather than the ministers themselves.<\/p>\n

Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, who is set to table legislation to remove speed cameras on the behest of Premier Ford, said cabinet needed to set a better example.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe must follow the law and we must follow the rules on the road, and we expect and need to ensure that those rules are followed,\u201d he told Global News.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to ensure that we are respecting the road and the speed limits that are imposed upon it and will continue to do so. And it won\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

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Separately, one cabinet minister assigned vehicle was recorded by its internal monitoring systems travelling at more than 150 km\/h on 12 separate occasions, prompting a stunt driving notification to the Ministry of Transportation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Politics
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

Ford has also called that incident \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unknown individual driving at the time appears to still work for the government, and the premier\u2019s office will not say if they still drive cabinet ministers\u2019 vehicles.<\/p>\n

The speeding incidents come as the Ford government moves forward with a plan to ban municipal speed cameras, which the premier has described as a \u201ctax grab\u201d that he claimed doesn\u2019t work to slow traffic down.<\/p>\n

Mayors, municipalities, police chiefs and school boards have all written to the premier, asking him to change course. They\u2019ve suggested adjusting, instead of banning, automated speed enforcement.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, as she pushed back against the plan to cut speed cameras, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow hit out at Ford\u2019s government over the speeding infractions.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI notice one thing, that provincial ministers\u2019 vehicles have been (more than) 20 violations, over $3,000 fines,\u201d she said to reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tRelated News\n\t<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tOntario government won\u2019t say which cabinet minister vehicles were speeding, citing safety\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tFord government vehicle recorded at stunt driving speeds on Ontario highways\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTwelve times in the past three years, some were caught 50 km\/h over the speed limit, as high as 162 km\/h. By God, no wonder they don\u2019t like speed cameras because they catch them while they\u2019re breaking the law. One hundred and sixty-two km, my God, 50 km\/h over the limit 12 times in the past three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stunt-driving speeds were recorded by the vehicle itself and not caught by speed cameras.<\/p>\n

The premier and his transportation minister said last month they would table legislation to ban municipalities from operating speed cameras, a system Ford repeatedly referred to as a \u201ctax grab.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the legislation is tabled, it will complete\u00a0a policy walkback from the premier who introduced the regulations in 2019 that govern speed cameras in the first place<\/a>, bringing into force\u00a0a law written by the previous Liberal government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 2022 regulation also introduced by Ford\u2019s government created the penalty structure for vehicles caught speeding. It decreed drivers would pay $5 per kilometre over the limit up to 19 km\/h over, with higher penalties for going 20, 30 or 50 kilometres over.<\/p>\n

Ford has complained that the speed cameras are too sensitive, issuing tickets for minor infractions.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll use the stats just in Toronto because I know 32,000 tickets for going two kilometres over, four kilometres over, sometimes 10, 15 kilometres over \u2014 in three months,\u201d the premier previously said.<\/p>\n

None of the tickets given to minister vehicles were going less than 11 kilometres over the limit, and the average speed of 17 was also above Ford\u2019s example.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario\u2019s transportation minister has promised vehicles assigned to Doug Ford\u2019s cabinet ministers won\u2019t be caught speeding again, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13403,43,44,13404,714,99138,99139,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-201286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ford-government","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-ontario-politics","tag-politics","tag-speed-cameras","tag-speeding","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}