Mr Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North):
My question today is for the Minister of Community
Safety and Correctional Services. Minister,
your Liberal party in its campaign document,
Growing Strong Communities, never once promised
Ontarians a tax grab in the form of photo radar,
if elected. Yet the Premier and the Minister
of Transportation seem determined to reintroduce
this NDP tax grab to line the provincial coffers.
We know that you believe it's a tax grab. On
December 17, 1994, you actually said in the
Toronto Sun, "All it's really done has
made the coffers of the treasury swell with
amounts of money that are starting to verge
on the obscene."
Now your government is considering granting
permission to municipalities to use photo radar.
Can you stand in the House today in the name
of community safety and give municipalities
a choice on photo radar, that they can keep
the money they collect from fines and, further,
only direct it to front-line policing?
Hon Monte Kwinter (Minister of Community
Safety and Correctional Services): The
member should know that the responsibility for
the implementation of photo radar will be that
of the Minister of Transportation. I refer to
the question to him.
Hon Harinder S. Takhar (Minister of
Transportation): We are always interested
in any measures that will improve safety on
the highways and on the roads. If we ever consider
photo radar, it will only be considered for
safety reasons on the highways and the roads.
Mr Dunlop: Just for the record,
I am disappointed Minister Kwinter wouldn't
answer that question, because there is a clear
connection between photo radar and community
policing. There is no question about that. I
think that at the cabinet table you have to
make that distinction.
Mr Takhar, if your government foolishly ends
up allowing municipalities to implement the
photo radar tax grab -- and we know it's a tax
grab; all you gentlemen over there basically
said it in the past. Gerry Phillips, for example,
talked about it. Photo radar? "These are
just cash machines. They're a gold mine for
the province." That's Gerry Phillips on
March 2, 1994.
Minister, if you allow the municipalities to
implement photo radar, does this mean that this
is replacing your promise to put 1,000 new police
officers on the streets of our province?
Hon Mr Takhar: As I said earlier,
we will only consider photo radar for safety
reasons. It will not be considered for a cash
grab, but we are always interested in any measure
that will improve safety on the highways. I
would like to point out, though, that the member
from Leeds-Grenville is also in favour of photo
radar.
