In 2022, the City of Brandon addressed the Manitoba government to allow the city and Brandon Police Service to implement the right to use red light cameras and photo radar within the city limits.
“At that time, we had had some discussion, more informal than formal discussion, about implementing Vision Zero in our community,” shares Brandon’s deputy mayor, Bruce Luebke. “It had been brought up several times as we had had some traffic safety issues come up. And so, when you investigate a little bit more about Vision Zero and what it is and you take a look at what some of their recommendations are, you can see how to make things safer in communities.”
“So, they have a top 10 list of things to do and one of those is using modern enforcement technology like automated speed cameras and red-light cameras,” he continues. “And so, at the time we were just getting the Vision Zero Task Force started and thought of what Vision Zero would look like down the road. We wanted to try and get the Manitoba Highway Traffic Act changed to match bringing Vision Zero into our community.”
Luebke says Vision Zero began in Sweden in the 1990’s and has been implemented in many communities across the globe. Its goal is to eliminate traffic violence and promote active mobility. “When you talk about traffic violence it talks about trying to reduce injuries due to traffic accidents and encouraging people to use alternate forms of transportation in their community.”
Since 2002, photo enforcement has been regulated by the Highway Traffic Act. However, only the City of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Police Service have the authority to use photo enforcement technology.
At that time the City of Brandon received a letter of acknowledgement from the Province saying the Manitoba government would take their recommendation under advisement. Nothing more was said.
At the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) conference last month the City of Brandon tried again, this time by presenting the resolution to their fellow AMM members. The resolution to allow all municipal governments to implement photo radar and red-light cameras was given the green light by a majority vote.
What started as a City of Brandon initiative has turned into a province-wide effort to allow this type of technology to be used in police enforcement across the province.
“So, this time around because it’s been passed now by the AMM at our November conference, it means that the AMM, which represents all 137 municipalities in the province will now lobby the province to change the Manitoba Highway Traffic Act. This would allow that opportunity for image enforcement in any municipality in the province,” adds Luebke.
“The majority of the municipalities voted in favor of it so obviously there are others that are interested in this. Let’s then get the body of the municipalities in the province lobbying the government on our behalf to get the Highway Traffic Act changed.”
Please listen to more with Bruce Luebke below.
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