Ontario Premier Doug Ford gives remarks at a press conference in Queen’s Park on March 10, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Katherine KY Cheng/Getty Images)
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province is considering the use of security cameras to help address the rise in home invasions and auto theft in the province.
Ford floated the idea for increased surveillance at an unrelated press conference in Hamilton this week, days after he announced his government is preparing to introduce legislation to ban traffic speed cameras. He has previously referred to traffic cameras as a municipal “cash grab” and during the Sept. 29 press conference said he’d rather cameras be used for crime prevention.
“I want to start introducing cameras on crime, if approved by residents,” Ford said while in the city to announce completion of Hamilton’s new Confederation GO station. “Certain areas around Ontario are just getting hammered. York Region, certain parts of Etobicoke, Peel Region and up in Halton as well, Durham. So we’re going to be working on that. And I’m wondering if we can use those cameras to identify stolen cars as well.”
Ford said he was contemplating funding security cameras in municipalities across the province to help address the rise in crime. He said the idea for security cameras occurred to him after a weekend meeting with Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca during which they discussed increasing crime surveillance systems, an initiative introduced by the province in 2022.
The government launched a $1.8 million fund to offer closed-circuit television (CCTV) grants to the OPP and local police services for use in areas where gun and gang violence and related crimes, such as drug and human trafficking, are most prevalent.
The government upped the fund to $2 million in May to allow police to set up CCTV cameras, with the province covering half of the cost up to $300,000 per year.
Ford did not offer specifics on what cameras would be used or how such a program would work. He also did not say if the province will repurpose the speed cameras that the government plans to ban.
Cameras will only be installed in towns and cities where the community has given them the “green light,” Ford said, noting that the cameras cost roughly $15,000 per unit.
The premier said he met with residents in his own Etobicoke neighbourhood who are interested in installing cameras for community safety after four home invasions in the area in the past 10 days.
Bail Reform Plea
Ford said he visited a family over the weekend that was victimized during an armed home invasion.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how traumatized people are when they get their house broken into by four masked men with a gun, pointing it to their heads,” he said of his interaction with the family. “People want to move out of their homes.”
Ford has spoken out several times about the rise of crime in Ontario, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area. He has been calling on Ottawa for more than a year to reform bail laws and overhaul the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and did so again during his Hamilton press conference, saying the current system has become a revolving door for repeat offenders.
“These criminals, we got to catch them, throw them in jail for years, not let them out the next day, because that’s actually what’s happening in a lot of cases,” Ford said. “We have to clean up the streets. Like big time.”
To that end, Ontario’s solicitor general and attorney general sent a joint letter last week asking federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree to reform Canada’s federal bail and sentencing laws.
Fraser said earlier this month that the federal government plans to table bail and sentencing reform legislation in the House of Commons in October to make good on election promises.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said during his election campaign that his government would implement a “reverse onus” system to make it more difficult for those charged with serious crimes to receive bail.
He also pledged to toughen sentencing guidelines for violent car theft and organized crime-related offences as well as a focus on “denunciation and deterrence” for repeat offenders.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives have submitted proposed legislation to modify Canada’s justice system. The Tories say the “Jail Not Bail Act” would make it more difficult for those accused of serious crimes to receive bail.
Poilievre said the legislation introduces a new major offences category that requires those accused of charges like sexual assault, kidnapping, human trafficking, home invasion, robbery, arson, and firearms crimes to “prove that it is safe to release them on bail.”
The legislation has currently passed first reading in the House of Commons and is set for second reading later today.