37 city workers caught running red lights and speeding in 2022, with taxpayers footing the bill
CBC
Thirty-seven City of Hamilton vehicles were caught on camera running red lights and speeding in 2022, racking up at least $5,850 in fines and resulting in potential unpaid suspensions for workers.
But the workers behind the wheel didn't pay for their tickets — the city did.
Data obtained by CBC Hamilton shows of the 37 workers who broke the law, 18 were caught by red light cameras and 19 were caught by automatic speed enforcement (ASE) cameras.
Red light camera tickets cost $325, which means the city would have been fined around $5,850 for those violations.
It's unclear what the city paid for ASE violations because those tickets vary depending on the driver's speed.
Emily Trotta, a city spokesperson with the public works department, said the average cost of a ticket during a pilot program in 2020 and 2021 was $70.
Applying that average cost to the 19 city workers caught speeding shows those speeding tickets may have cost taxpayers another $1,330.
Trotta said there are practical reasons why the city covers the bill.
"It's not always possible to determine who was driving the vehicle for the instance the violation was committed," she wrote.
"Also, tickets paid by employees could result in employees challenging the ticket and as the ticket is issued to the City of Hamilton, not the employee, it would result in the employee representing the City of Hamilton in court arguing against the City of Hamilton."
Norm Miller, another spokesperson with the public works department, said city workers caught running red lights get 20 points on their employment record and receive a one-day, unpaid suspension. Miller did not confirm how many employees were suspended, however.
Employees caught by automatic speed enforcement cameras get 15 points on their employment file and no suspension because it takes 20 points to be suspended.
Trotta said when workers hit 50 points, they are fired. She did not say if any employees had been fired as a result last year.
Workers from the public works department were responsible for 29 of the 37 violations.
Miles Purden started noticing woodpeckers taking aim at his home in North Kamloops in 2020.
Flu cases are on the rise across the province, while immunization uptake is the lowest it's been in more than a decade, two infectious disease experts say.
At his ranch in Black Pines, just outside Kamloops, B.C., Ed LeBourdais knows how to get his bulls' attention.
Anxiety is the most common reason Island students are turning to well-being teams in schools, says a social worker involved with a P.E.I. support program.
Pauline Frost, chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in northern Yukon, usually looks forward to late January, when the winter sun returns to her Arctic village.
This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.
Will it be sticker shock for Toronto homeowners again this year?
Researchers at the University of Waterloo say they've made a breakthrough in introducing a new trait into bacteria found in wastewater, giving them the ability to break down microplastics.
Aircraft dropped water and fire retardant on steep hills, and ground firefighting efforts were stepped up in a bid to stem the eastward spread of the Palisades wildfire in Los Angeles on Saturday, amid new predictions of wind gusts that could hit 110 kilometres per hour.
Seven people are in custody following a raid on a home on Mundy Pond Road in St. John's on Saturday.
Four people were taken to hospital, at least one with serious injuries, after a fire early Saturday in a duplex in Lower Sackville, N.S.