At the Tuesday, May 20th meeting of Peterborough City Council, councillors voted to continue the process of designating heritage sites, received a delegation from Dr. Chetan Mehta regarding their ongoing physician recruitment program, and began laying out the ground work for placing speed cameras around Peterborough.

They plan on tackling the issue of speeding in Peterborough using the Automatic Speed Enforcement (ASE) system, with the intended aim of putting up speed cameras in Community Safety Zones, which are currently limited to school zones, but can be extended to other areas of concerns, such as residential streets.

The motion, introduced at the previous general committee meeting, was passed unanimously. In Town Ward Councillor Joy Lachica’s comments, she called Peterborough the “Wild West”, in reference to its citizens’ driving, citing one particular “dragster ripping down” Charlotte street in the middle of the night. Ashburnham Ward Councillor Keith Riel, who moved the motion, said that he was excited for speed cameras.

“[I’ve been] on council 14 years…there’s always the thing about [speeding]. We’ve tried speed pillows, we’ve tried chicaning traffic, we’ve tried speed meters, or whatever you want to call them,” Riel said.

“All kinds of things. But I think Coun. Duguay said last week—’until you nick someone in their pocket book, that’s when they’re going to start paying attention.’”

Multiple councillors, including Northcrest Ward Councillor Dave Haacke, also wanted to assure the citizens of Peterborough that this wasn’t a “cash grab.” 

“I don’t think this is a cash cow. I believe this will hurt. It will sting a bit, and I’m more worried about me,” Haacke laughed.

Haacke then asked what speed tickets would be issued, and was referred to Manager of Traffic and Parking Services Peter Malin. 

“The speed limit is set under the speed bylaw where there’s 50, 40, and 30 kilometres per hour, and we’ll be enforcing that in the same manner as they do across Ontario,” Malin told council.“We’ll be taking advice from the Ministry of Transportation with respect to what limit it gets triggered.” 

“And do we know what that limit is?” Haacke asked.

“We’re not aware at this point.” Malin replied.

Monaghan Ward Councillor Don Vassiliadis later brought the question back up.

“In the report it says that it’s approximately $20 per offense, at what speed do we break even?” Vassiliadis asked. “It says per offense, it costs us $20, basically.” 

Malin could not answer the question, but did say that the City expects to get 10-15 infractions a day.

These set fines would mean a $5 per km over the speed limit fine within the 1-19km/h range and increasingly larger fines beyond that. There will be signage put up alerting drivers of the newly placed speed cameras and a map put on the City of Peterborough’s website listing their locations.

After discussing the ASE system, council received a delegation from Dr. Chetan Mehta, a Trent alumni and physician working in Toronto. He advised the City on how to attract international physicians, specifically American doctors fleeing the current political climate, but also physicians from across the former commonwealth.

Among Dr. Mehta’s recommendations were putting ads in the classified section of American doctor magazines, such as the American Journal of Medicine, removing barriers to transfer medical licenses and immigration, and establishing financial incentive packages. 

Mayor Jeff Leal spoke about Huntsville, which is offering significant incentives, including a one-year car lease, and a golf and ski club membership. He called this practice a “race to the bottom,” where municipalities are being forced to compete to bring in much-needed doctors, and asked Dr. Mehta if he thought these incentives would be effective.

 “Those are nice things… [But] last time I checked, a golf membership isn’t going to pay anybody’s student debt. Maybe a car lease, that’s helpful, because it reduces some of your own personal cost. Housing? Sure.” Dr. Mehta said. 

“I just don’t think these things should be forced on municipalities. In the Canada Health Act, every Canadian should have the right to equitable, accessible healthcare. Healthcare funding and delivery is the jurisdiction of the province. Municipalities should not be forced to rely on these kinds of measures to deal with [this] systemic failure of the province.”  

Both Dr. Mehta and members of council stressed that the physician shortage issue is a provincial and federal issue that municipalities are not equipped to handle.  

“It’s almost like a Hunger Game, like the movies, one municipality against the other.” Coun.Riel commented.

Afterwards, there was a brief discussion about Bill 6, Safer Municipalities Act, 2025 where council almost unanimously voted (with the exception of Councillor Bierk) to request the province provide clearer instructions on how to enforce the bill, with specific regards to shelter space. 

The Bill also includes an “arrest without warrant” clause, which would allow police to “arrest, without warrant, a person who the officer believes on reasonable grounds is guilty of an offence under this Act,” as well as a $10,000 fine and/or six-month prison sentence for public illicit drug use. 

Coun. Bierk then asked Legislative Services Commissioner David Potts about the success of the City’s enforcement of its Parks and Facilities Bylaw on encampments. 

“I think success is subjective,” Potts replied. “Council has established standards under its Parks and Facilities Bylaw.”

“Municipal law enforcement and security services are charged with [the] responsibility of enforcing council’s standards,” Potts continued. “And enforcing council’s standards requires regard to the limits of the law and available resources.”

Last on the docket, council provided direction on heritage designations to be priorized by the Peterborough Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee. 

Coun. Haacke opposed the motion, beleliving that it was government overreach, and would drive up costs for owners of heritage sites. 

“The citizens of Peterborough for 115 years were quite capable of taking care of their trees. Then, one day, it changed, and they’re not. And it was no different than the Heritage [Act] that came in the mid-70s.” Haacke said.

“Up until then, which was about 106 years or so, people were quite capable of taking care of the buildings, and then they’re not, all of the sudden. Ronald Reagan always told a story—nine words people hate to hear: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” Haacke concluded.

Coun. Bierk, who supported the motion, said that there needed to be more communication with constituents who owned potential heritage sites, as the current system involved next to none, a sentiment which was echoed by Coun. Duguay.

The motion passed, 9-2, with ward mate Councillor Andrew Beamer also siding with Coun. Haacke.