The City of St. Albert is assessing the effects of the province's changes to photo radar rules, and plans to present recommendations to council on the program in September.
Beginning April 1, the Government of Alberta banned photo radar on all numbered provincial highways and connectors, and restricted Intersection Safety Devices (ISDs) to red light enforcement only.
For its part, the City of Edmonton announced, effective July 1, it would eliminate photo radar at school and playground zones, and mobile enforcement would no longer be used in playground zones. It said the revenue model that funded playground zone enforcement was no longer sustainable since the province's changes took effect.
Currently, St. Albert is on a temporary interim contract to continue photo enforcement services in playground zones and construction zones, policing services manager Aaron Giesbrecht said.
He said because of the provincial changes, the city removed a total of 78 mobile sites and six ISDs, although one mobile area could have two sites, with one going northbound and the other going southbound. The changes led to around a 40 per cent drop in revenue from 2024, he said.
"By the end of May 2024 the city had received approximately $408,000 in buying revenue associated with photo enforcement. When you compare that to this year — from January to May 2025 — we've received about $250,000," Giesbrecht said.
He said the city still does traffic enforcement through both Peace Officers and the RCMP.
In May, St. Albert RCMP Staff Sgt. Dwayne Moore told council traffic monitoring was being added as a fourth priority, when he presented the RCMP's quarterly report.
St. Albert RCMP Cpl. Curtis Harsulla said the agency's approach to manned enforcement hasn't changed much since the province's changes. He said it has been enhanced, with a vacancy filled and more officers dedicated to traffic enforcement.
"We've had feedback of the increased visibility in traffic enforcement around St. Albert, and it pretty much started off back when the changes were made to the photo radar policies by the province," Harsulla said.
Giesbrecht said although Edmonton is dropping photo radar at these sites because of lack of sustainable funding, St. Albert's model puts it in a different position.
"Our service-delivery model is with a contract provider, whereas City of Edmonton does it in-house," he said. "So what that means, is the cost-benefit analysis that we do is a little different. It gets negotiated through contract conditions, and it's not apples to apples.
Meanwhile, he said, they are developing recommendations on photo radar enforcement to present to council in September.
"In the meantime traffic safety is still incredibly important to the city of St. Albert," he said.
