The city of Regina is debating on what they do with school zone speeding tickets that were handed out during the pandemic.
This comes after 6,000 tickets were issued in Regina for going above the posted 30 km/h between 7AM and 7PM.
Mayor Michael Fougere said there’s strong points on both sides when it comes to enforcing or refunding the speeding tickets.
“The first one is: the speed limit is 30 km/h whether or not we’re enforcing it, you should always obey speed limits,” Fougere said. “The other side of the argument — which as a strong argument too — is that, we weren’t collecting parking fines or fees at meters downtown, and we weren’t collecting transit, so why are we collecting money’s there (in school zones)?
“Those are two good arguments.”
Fougere says comparatively, Saskatoon does not enforce their school zone speed limit when school is not in session.
“The very strong argument is that the law’s the law, and you have to obey the law,” Fougere said. “While school’s not in necessarily, there may be people walking on the sidewalk, or near there that should be protected as well. The zone of 30 km/h is there for a reason.”
Still, Fougere says there likely will be a threshold in place to ensure events like last week’s 104 km/h through a school zone incident don’t happen again.
“What’s the line that you cross? Is it 50 km/h? Is it 70 km/h? What might it be?” Fougere said. “The 30 km/h is there because that’s the safest way to go through that corridor, so I think it’s going to be hard to make that determination unless all parties agree to that.”
If the city does decide not to enforce the tickets, it would be more difficult than just refunding those who have already paid. According to Fougere, 25% of school zone speeding tickets goes to SGI while the rest is divided between the city and a regional safe driving organization.