According to Ontario’s auditor general, Ottawa police have been handing out more traffic tickets than any other provincial municipality over the past ten years. In fact, the number of tickets issued in the capital city has increased very dramatically, and what is more worrying for some watchdogs is that this increase comes at the same time that traffic revenues were transferred to the city.
The recently-released auditor general’s annual report cites theses facts as a potential conflict. Ottawa was allowed to keep the revenue from tickets in 2001. Between 1999 and 2007, the number of traffic tickets written up by Ottawa Police jumped 155%. No other area of the province has seen such a jump, leading to the obvious question: are the tickets just a money grab by Ottawa?
York has also seen an increase in traffic tickets, but only by 95%. Toronto has seen an increase of 78% in terms of tickets being written up. Other cities in Ontario are seeing increases of 50% or less. The huge jump in Ottawa certainly seems conspicuous. The auditor general, Jim McCarter, has been asking whether the traffic practices might be influenced by the desire to promote revenues in the city. However, he was not able to find a firm answer so he raised the issue with Ontario’s attorney general.
Ottawa police have their own explanations for the sudden spike in tickets. Police spokesperson Staff Sgt. Rock Lavigne notes that in 2002, the police targeted unsafe driving and speeding as top issues and as a result hired 18 officers for the city’s traffic enforcement and escort unit. The 42-member-strong-team can better catch aggressive drivers and speeding drivers, Lavigne notes. The fact that tickets increased by a third within the first year the new officers were hired does seem to suggest the extra officers may have played a role in the ticket increases. Lavigne also says that the city’s growth in 2001 may explain the extra tickets. In that year, the Ottawa police expanded their jurisdiction, which now includes Rideau, Osgoode, Goulbourn, Kanata, West Carleton, Cumberland, and Rockcliffe Park
Still, watchdogs find it hard to ignore that the money from tickets does into Ottawa’s general revenue coffers (once a small fraction of the proceeds are granted to the province). Ottawa’s police services board rejects that idea that there is anything underhanded or self-serving in the writing of tickets. According to West Carleton-March Councillor Eli El-Chantiry, who also served on the city’s police services board, Ottawa is simply proving more effective and innovative in clamping down on speeding.









