Ottawa motorists could soon lose the ability to fight their photo radar and red light camera tickets in provincial court, as the city looks to streamline the process for challenging traffic tickets issued on city streets.

A report for the city's finance and corporate services committee recommends the city implement an administrative penalty system for adjudicating parking and camera-based offences, with municipally appointed screening and hearing officers adjudicating ticket disputes instead of the provincial court system.

With the city of Ottawa anticipating more than one million tickets to be issued through automated speed enforcement cameras and red light cameras this year and next year, staff say moving to an administrative penalty system will provide a "fair, efficient, and timely process to manage minor offences and resolve ticket disputes."

Currently, a ticket for a red light or photo radar camera infraction is certified by a Provincial Offence Officer, and the ticket is mailed to the defendant plate holder. If the offender decides to challenge the ticket, they fight the ticket in provincial court.

In a report, staff say with more photo radar cameras being installed in Ottawa, "growth in high-volume, minor offences is consuming a growing proportion of court time, putting pressure on the allocation of limited judicial resources across all (Provincial Offences Act) offences."

Parking and camera-related tickets currently make up over 95 per cent of all infractions in Ottawa, while the city only has access to two thirds of the judicial resources in provincial offences court compared to pre-COVID levels, according to staff.

If the city implements the administrative penalty system to deal with parking and camera-based tickets, motorists will no longer be able to challenge the ticket in court. Instead, city-appointed officers would manage the dispute and resolution processes for the tickets.

"An 'administrative penalty system' will provide improved service to the public and ensure public satisfaction with a fair, efficient, and timely process to manage minor offences and resolve ticket disputes," staff say. "Leveraging an APS program for minor offences will ensure the POA courts have sufficient capacity to focus on adjudicating more serious offences and will support the Road Safety Action Plan."

Under the administrative penalty system, drivers who receive a photo radar or red light camera ticket can either pay the penalty or request a screening review by a screening officer. Following the decision by the screening officer, the offender can request a review by a hearing officer, who will be appointed by council. The decision of a hearing officer is final.

The report says disputes over camera-related and parking offences will be heard "within a few weeks or months," and screening officer reviews will be conducted in writing with a fixed time for a further review by a hearing officer.

"By giving the city control over ensuring adequate adjudicative resourcing to meet demand and providing defendants the ability to receive dispute outcomes in less than half the time than is offered under current state POA," staff said. "Second, it will allow the City to ensure the appropriate controls are put in place through various policies and procedures mandated by APS legislation to provide residents a fair hearing in front of a trained, neutral decision maker."

There will be a one-time start up cost of $1.57 million for the city to cover renovations, equipment and training. However, staff estimate the city will save nearly 35 per cent by switching from the Provincial Offences Act to administrative penalty system.

In February, Toronto city council approved a plan to move ticket disputes for photo radar and red light cameras from the provincial courts to a city-administered penalty system.

Ottawa plans to appoint 10 hearing officers per year, starting in 2024, 2025 and 2026, with a total of 30 hearing officers available five to 10 days per month.

Under the plan, the administrative penalty system would be set up for parking tickets in the spring of 2025, while camera-based tickets would move to the new system in the winter of 2025.

"A phased approach was recommended to allow appropriate set up of the infrastructure and resources required to implement an APS and be able to leverage lessons learned and operational experience to later implement camera-based offences," the report said.

The city of Ottawa currently has 40 automated speed enforcement cameras and 86 red light cameras. A total of 60 photo radar cameras are expected to be installed by the end of this year.

The city estimates one million tickets will be issued through photo radar cameras in 2024, with another 1.5 million tickets issued in 2025. Red light cameras are expected to issue 56-thousand tickets in each of the next two years.

Staff expect the number of demands to go to trial for camera-related tickets to increase by 15,000 this year and 12,000 in 2025.

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In a small dance studio located in the Routhier Community Centre in Ottawa's Lowertown neighbourhood, Chloë Bonnet leads a team of eight young women in an intricate dance routine.

On the longtime dance instructor's count, the dancers sweep their legs out, throw their hands up and lean back in tandem.

It's a practice session for a video Bonnet and dance friend Zeeggy Mercy dreamed up as an ode to female empowerment and a celebration of multiculturalism in the dance community.

A self-taught dancer, Mercy says she and Bonnet bonded over the lack of diversity in Ottawa's dance scene. To bring the video to life, they decided to reach out to dancers across the city who'd felt excluded from dance spaces.

"I want to show that women from different backgrounds and ethnicities have talent … especially [in] the city of Ottawa," Bonnet said in a video documenting the experience, put together by Mercy's brother, filmmaker Benjamin Shimwa, in collaboration with CBC Ottawa's Creator Network.

1 step forward, 2 steps back

Bonnet, who grew up in Ottawa, started dancing at age three, beginning with ballet.

"Dance for me is a passion. It's a form of expression," she said.

But when she tried to join dance troupes in university, she felt out of place.

"I feel like the dance world in Ottawa is very homogeneous," explained Bonnet, whose background is Haitian. "There's a lack of diversity when it comes to the big dance teams that we have here."

She said that's why she decided to take her talents to a city she felt did reflect its diversity — New York.

"I wanted to get trained in dance professionally, and I also wanted to dance with people that looked more like me."

But after training at three dance schools in New York where she worked with choreographers from around the world, returning to Ottawa during the pandemic felt like a step backwards.

"I wanted the image of the dance community to change, but unfortunately I feel like we still have work to do," said Bonnet, who noted the dance community in Ottawa is mostly focused on contemporary, ballet and jazz.

"It's for a very particular group," she said, and not representative of the diversity of dancers who she's met as a teacher at École secondaire publique De La Salle where she teaches as a guest artist once a week.

Bridging cultures

That diversity of style is what attracted Tanya Adesara to the project.

The recent Carleton University graduate grew up in India practising Garba, a traditional Gujarati dance.

When she moved to Canada five years ago, she wanted to branch out into different dance forms, but she struggled to meet people from different backgrounds at classes in the city.

"I wanted to exchange ideas — you know, that's what dance is about — just connecting to different people."

As part of the dance project, Bonnet and Mercy asked participants to share their own experiences of feeling excluded from dance spaces. Stories ranged from cost barriers to a feeling of having to work twice as hard to prove themselves.

For Adesara, the project helped her feel the connection she'd craved.

"This is what was missing. This is what I wanted to find," she said.

Creating opportunities

For dancer Temitayo Oyenola, the project is another way to create the missing spaces for a range of dancers — something she'd already done when she created her own dance group.

"I couldn't find a dance team that helped me express my gift," said the second-year health sciences student at Carleton University.

"So I decided, why not start mine?"

Oyenola, who founded an Afrobeats dance team at the school in 2023, said she wanted to pass on that message of possibility and action to fellow dancers.

"I realized that there are actually a lot of students out there with the same dream and goal as me," she said.

Longtime dancer and teacher Alea De Castro is happy to see more projects like these in this city. Growing up dancing ballet and jazz, she'd also felt like she never truly fit in.

"I was one of the only Asians … in my class and I felt it. I just didn't feel like I belonged."

After taking a few years off from dancing, she co-founded Moov Ottawa in 2018, a street dance company that offers workshops and dance classes and performs at events.

De Castro says she wishes there was more support from the city and elsewhere to help legitimize urban dance and promote more diversity in the dance world.

"I would love to see more folks hiring people that look like me … more [people of colour]."

A step in the right direction

Shimwa, who documented the project says he wanted to capture the beginning of what he believes can be a much larger movement in the dance world.

"Some people just want that instant change ... but we forget that there's steps to getting there," he said, explaining why he chose the title Steps to inclusivity.

"The moment you take one step you motivate everybody else," Shimwa said.

For Mercy, this project is that step, and she hopes it will inspire more change.

"I feel like there's a lot of talented people trying to make it out there, but they don't have the opportunity," said Mercy. "If no one is giving you an opportunity, don't wait for it. Go create your own opportunities."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anchal Sharma is a journalist at CBC Ottawa. Send her an email at anchal.sharma@cbc.ca

E-scooters are back on Ottawa streets for 2024, but with some new rules and regulations.

This year marks the fifth and final year of a pilot project first set up by the province in 2020. The city has selected two scooter providers who've operated in previous years — Bird Canada Inc., and Neuron Mobility.

The plan is to have a fleet of 900 e-scooters that can be used in and around an area bordered by St. Laurent Boulevard in the east, Rideau River/Carling Avenue in the south, Churchill Avenue in the west and the Ottawa River in the north.

The fleet could expand to 1,200 if it's needed, the city says.

Here are some of the new — and old — rules you need to follow if you want to use one of the e-scooters.

Hours extended

People will be able to ride between 5 a.m. and 1 a.m. this year. That's two hours later than in 2023, and one hour earlier.

The only exception is that after 11 p.m., if scooter users bring their rides to an end in the ByWard Market, they won't be able to start a new one.

That's due to the high concentration of bars in the neighbourhood. Riders will still be able to travel through the market after 11 p.m., and stop at lights and crosswalks, but they can't get on and off.

Isaac Ransom, head of corporate affairs at Neuron Mobility, said he's happy to see the longer hours but would like to have the scooters available 24/7.

"There's no other city in Canada that we're aware of that has limitations on when e-scooters can operate," Ransom said.

"We operate across all of our markets in Canada 24/7 without incident, so I don't see any reason why we can't operate in Ottawa that way."

Not on NCC paths

Riders will also be barred from taking e-scooters along the Rideau Canal Pathway or the Ottawa River Pathway.

The land belongs to the National Capital Commission (NCC), which doesn't allow e-scooters or any vehicle that can't be propelled by a person on the pathways.

According to Austin Spademan, head of government relations for Bird Canada, they've heard from students at Carleton University who are concerned they might end up on busy Bronson Avenue.

"That's quite a scary road to ride an electric scooter on," Spademan said.

"A lot of students have asked if it's possible to ride on the NCC trails that go near campus to get around Bronson and get over to Bank Street on multi-use pathways. And the answer is no."

Goodbye drinking and scooting

Starting this year, riders will have to complete a sobriety test on the app before accessing the e-scooters after 11 p.m.

Bird Canada's test has echoes of an impaired driving test, with users having to identify which lines on a screen are straight and which ones lean to either the right or left.

Neuron Mobility's test makes users react to prompts within a limited time before they can unlock an e-scooter.

They've been implemented to discourage people from riding while intoxicated.

Bird Canada will still be monitoring riders for potential intoxication outside of the restricted hours, Spademan said.

"If you're weaving and driving frankly like an idiot, our scooter can detect that," he said.

"We can determine your riding behaviour and take action appropriately. And what that would look like is a permanent ban if you're not learning the appropriate riding behaviour."

Riders will receive a warning email if the company detects poor riding behaviour, like frequently slamming on the brakes or swerving erratically. They could be suspended or banned if further violations occur.

The City of Ottawa will also issue $150 tickets to users riding on the sidewalk.

Longer e-scooter season this year

The 2024 season has also started three weeks earlier than last year. It's slated to run until Nov. 15, weather permitting

Last year, the city reported that riders made roughly 1,000 e-scooter trips every day.

Centretown was the most popular origin and destination neighbourhood, with Sandy Hill and the ByWard Market following closely behind.

The top complaint filed to both companies was e-scooters being parked incorrectly. The e-scooters have been equipped with geofencing technology that warns riders not to drive on sidewalks or dump scooters in unapproved parking areas.

The e-scooters are available to use for anyone over the age of 16 and riders cannot exceed 20 km/h.

Once the season wraps up, the province will then decide whether to make e-scooters a permanent fixture, extend the temporary pilot project, or discontinue them.

All in a Day9:12E-scooters are back in Ottawa for the final year of pilot project

Associate Producer Halima Sogbesan tells us about some of the tweaks and changes this year

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Dines is a reporter for CBC Ottawa. You can reach her at alex.dines@cbc.ca.

With files from Halima Sogbesan