City Council, had a lot to discuss during last night’s meeting. One of the topics that was brought up was, Camera systems on a school bus… “Dash Cams”.

Timmins Police Chief John Gauthier, was supposed to go into further details regarding the cameras on the school buses, but was not able to attend the meeting.

There have been talks however, at the Ontario Legislature regarding this topic for quite some time now according to Timmins CAO Dave Landers, who spoke on behalf of Gauthier. He went on to add that this can be reviewed at the next Council meeting.

“Hopefully these changes are made; a number of really quite terrifying incidents that were related to the last Council meeting, relating to school buses which amaze me but, they’re there. So I hope that they (Ontario Legislature/MTO) change the laws so that cameras systems can be used effectively.” -Timmins Mayor George Pirie

According to City Councilor Kristin Murray, other municipalities have implemented a By-Law making sure that there is a Camera System in place for school buses.

“A couple of meetings ago I referenced to a community that has passed this as a By-Law. So, I understand that maybe the Legislation doesn’t allow it, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t consider it… Maybe not right now, but I’m just putting it out there that 2017 was when some of them were signed. We don’t know how long it’s going to sit in government before it’s ever passed so, I don’t want to lose sight of waiting for government if this continues to be a concern in our community.” -City Councilor Kristin Murray

If Police Chief Gauthier is available next time Council meets, there is a good chance this will be a revisited topic.

Filed under: Local News