Motorists beware: Quebec's transport ministry is back to raking in the big money from speeders caught on photo radar.
In just seven months last year, from May to December 2018, photo radar tickets generated more than $11 million in income. That's 10 times more money than it made during the May-December period in 2017.
During that May-December period in 2017, Quebec issued 3,896 photo radar tickets. A year later, that number jumped to 70,228.
Why the sudden increase? Well, you have the former Liberal government of Philippe Couillard to thank for that.
In the fall of 2016, Quebec Court judge Serge Cimon ruled that tickets issued as a result of photo radar were essentially invalid, since actual police officers weren't around to confirm that motorists getting photo radar tickets were breaking the law.
But in early 2018, a revision to the Highway Safety Code by the then-Couillard government plugged that loophole — it now clearly states a photo taken by a machine is admissible evidence in court.
Figures from the Quebec transport ministry also show that despite being taken off the road in 2015, a photo radar machine near the intersection of Highway 15 south and Atwater Ave. was the province's biggest money maker in terms of photo radar fines, raking in more than $25 million since the summer of 2009.