Photo radar in Montreal: cameras the province owns
Photo radar and red-light cameras have run in Montreal since Quebec's provincial pilot began in 2009, but the city owns none of them. The transport ministry picks the sites, the Surete du Quebec's evidence centre has a peace officer verify every photo, and the fines go to a provincial road safety fund. Quebec's own guidance states municipalities cannot apply for a device; Montreal is simply one of five cities whose streets the province uses. The mayor asked for 300 cameras in 2024 and got no power to install one.
Quebec's transport ministry reports accident reductions at equipped sites since 2009 of 29% for stationary photo radars, 28% for red light monitoring equipment and 12% for mobile photo radars (quebec.ca, 'About photo radars'). These are province-wide operator figures: the ministry publishes no Montreal-only breakdown, and no independent or peer-reviewed evaluation of the Quebec programme was found.
🎓 Lesson
Automated enforcement is a jurisdiction question before it is a technology question. Montreal hosts the hardware, names the school streets it worries about, and still cannot install a camera: siting, evidence review and fine revenue all sit one level of government up.
Evidence🏛️ Official
Scale🗺️ Regional
FundingProvince of Quebec; fines and costs are paid into the Fonds de la securite routiere and restricted to road safety measures and accident-victim assistance
Sources
↗ Gouvernement du Quebec — Deployment of photo radars on the road networkThe load-bearing sentence for this entry: 'For the time being, municipalities cannot apply to have photo radar devices installed in their territory.' Same page: 'Five municipalities are currently participating in a pilot program: Montreal, Gatineau, Laval, Longueuil, and Quebec.' On the expansion: 'The Quebec government will gradually deploy more than 250 photo radar devices across the province's road network. Approximately 200 of these will be installed at fixed locations ... More than 50 will be mobile detection systems', in service from 2026, with a forthcoming call for proposals through which municipalities may finally suggest sites.
↗ Gouvernement du Quebec — About photo radarsSource of both the revenue rule and the impact figures. 'Fines and costs arising from offences detected by photo radar are deposited in a road safety fund (the Fonds de la securite routiere), which may only be used to finance road safety measures or programs and assistance for victims of road accidents.' The page gives accident reductions of 29% for stationary photo radars, 28% for red light monitoring equipment and 12% for mobile photo radars, and describes the three device types (stationary, mobile on van/trailer/tripod, red-light monitoring).
↗ Gouvernement du Quebec — Offences detected by photo radar devicesThe chain of custody is entirely provincial. Photos go to 'the Centre de traitement de la preuve (CTP), which is under the responsibility of the Surete du Quebec', where 'Each photo is analyzed by a peace officer, who verifies whether an offence has actually been committed.' The ticket goes to the registered owner: 'Since the only link to be established is between the vehicle and its owner, that person is responsible for the offence', and 'No demerit points will be added to your record, since photo radars allow you to identify the offending vehicle, but not the driver.'
↗ Gouvernement du Quebec — Technical data sheets from photo radars in the Montreal regionTwelve designated sites listed for the Montreal region as of July 2026, including 'Boulevard Decarie Nord, a l'intersection de la rue Pare', 'Rue Berri, a l'intersection du boulevard Henri-Bourassa Est', 'Boulevard Pie-IX', 'Boulevard Rene-Levesque (Est et Ouest)' and 'Route 138 en direction nord'. Sites, not devices: mobile units rotate between designated locations, so a site count is not a device count.
↗ CAA-Quebec — Photo radar and red-light camerasOrigin and site-selection authority: 'Photo radar and red-light cameras first appeared in Quebec on May 19, 2009. A total of 15 sites are involved in this 18-month pilot project' (Montreal, Monteregie and Chaudiere-Appalaches), and 'The sites were chosen jointly by the Ministere des Transports and the Ministere de la Securite publique, based on the high incidence and seriousness of accidents.'
↗ Ministere de la Justice du Quebec — Statistiques cumulatives des radars photo (mars 2026)Monthly device-by-device tally of statements of offence and fine amounts, published by the justice ministry, not the city. Its title dates the start of actual ticketing: 'Cumulatif depuis le 19 aout 2009 (debut du projet) au 31 Mars 2026' (cumulative since 19 August 2009, the start of the project) — i.e. three months after the 19 May 2009 pilot launch, once the grace period ended. Binary PDF; title and structure confirmed via the publisher's index.
↗ CBC News — Montreal mayor urges Quebec for more photo radars to improve school zone safety (Sept 2024)The political ask: Mayor Valerie Plante requested 300 photo radars for Montreal, mainly around schools, daycares and long-term care homes, and demanded more control over placement rather than leaving it to Transports Quebec; the province's entire programme is about 250 devices. La Presse reported the same request ('Montreal veut 300 radars photo', 4 Sept 2024). Both pages return HTTP 403 to automated fetch; verified through the search index against two independent outlets rather than by direct retrieval.
↗ La Presse — Radars photo: amendes records de 133 millions en 2025 (5 Jan 2026)Currency check: photo radar fines reached a record 133 million Canadian dollars in 2025, and 665.4 million dollars across 4.2 million offences since 2009. These are province-wide totals and are deliberately kept out of the impact field, because no source splits out a Montreal share. Page returns HTTP 403 to automated fetch; figures confirmed through the search index.
📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Photo radar in Montreal: cameras the province owns” — Montreal, Canada. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/montreal-photo-radar/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.
