Mayor Paul Lefebvre’s signature was not on the letter signed by 20 mayors requesting that Premier Doug Ford tweak the speed camera program rather than scrap it.
On Tuesday, a split city council voted against tabling a late motion by Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc to request the province reimburse municipalities for revenue losses as a result of scrapping speed cameras. The motion will now be debated at the Oct. 21 city council meeting.
Sudbury.com submitted an interview request to Mayor Paul Lefebvre’s office this week, which was denied through spokesperson Ken Bonder.
Bonder wrote that Lefebvre “will wait for the final legislation to be tabled so he can review it before commenting further.”
The interview request denial is the second from Lefebvre’s office in relation to Ford’s pledge to strike municipal use of automated speed-enforcement cameras. Greater Sudbury has six mobile speed cameras which shift locations every four months, and were slated to become active at new sites on Friday (provincial legislation to strike their use has yet to pass).
Although Lefebvre is refusing to speak about speed cameras now, he was supportive of their use when they were deployed in early 2024.
“The (automated speed-enforcement) cameras are an important tool to mitigate the safety risks associated with higher driving speeds,” Lefebvre said in a media release issued by the city at the time.
During Tuesday’s city council meeting, only five of 12 members in attendance voted to table Leduc’s motion, with Lefebvre among those who voted against doing so.
The preamble to Leduc’s motion notes that eliminating automated speed-enforcement cameras “will increase the burden on police services, raise enforcement costs and divert resources from other critical public safety responsibilities.”
The motion requests that the City of Greater Sudbury send a letter to government officials, including Ford, requesting the province fully reimburse municipalities for:
- Costs incurred due to the termination of the automated speed-enforcement program
- Lost revenues previously allocated to traffic calming measures
- Increased policing and enforcement costs resulting from the program’s elimination
The city’s automated speed-enforcement cameras have been active since March 22, 2024, and resulted in the issuance of 12,796 tickets last year, yielding a net municipal revenue of $753,003, which is being spent on traffic-calming measures.
The five city council members who voted yes to tabling Leduc’s motion were Ward 2 Coun. Eric Benoit, Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer, Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh, Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann and Leduc.
Those to vote no included Ward 3 Coun. Michel Brabant, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin, Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent, Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre, Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbée, Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier and Lefebvre.
“Mayor Lefebvre’s vote on Councillor Leduc’s motion was not about opposition to its intent, but rather a matter of procedure,” Bonder noted in his email response to Sudbury.com.
The procedure in question is that members’ motions without notice require two-thirds majority to be tabled “in circumstances of an urgent nature.”
Leduc contends that his motion fits this definition, since Ford’s Progressive Conservatives are currently drafting speed-camera legislation, which makes municipal advocacy time-sensitive.
On the question of procedure, Lefebvre has also tabled motions without notice in the past.
Where Leduc was not allowed to speak to his motion during Tuesday’s meeting or have it read or fully displayed on a screen prior to the city council vote to table it, Lefebvre has allowed these processes to take place in the past.
Lefebvre’s Feb. 21, 2023, motion without notice to put Junction East on hold was defended by the mayor and read by the city clerk prior to a council vote to table it. On Feb. 18 of this year, Lefebvre’s motion without notice regarding changes to municipal procurement due to U.S. tariffs was discussed, read and and voted on without first receiving a two-third majority vote to table.
In conversation with Sudbury.com after the meeting, Leduc contends that he was treated unfairly.
“The process works for some councillors, and for councillors like myself, I’m not allowed due process,” he said. “The mayor wouldn’t even allow me to talk as he does with other councillors. … He wouldn’t even allow me the dignity.
“Here I am trying to save the taxpayers some money, trying to work with the Ford government to find some kind of ground,” Leduc said. “We were elected to protect the taxpayers’ money, and that’s what I was doing.”
Leduc’s motion will be debated and voted on during the Oct. 21 city council meeting. Scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., the meeting can be viewed in-person at the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre in Azilda or livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.