Northern NDP MPPs demand action on highway safety issues

"Governments have abandoned their responsibilities to properly oversee the sector, allowing unsafe operators to undercut responsible employers, exploit vulnerable workers, and leave families paying the price," says MPP Guy Bourgouin

Article content The Ontario NDP Caucus issued a press release this week demanding the province implement stricter oversights of Ontario’s trucking industry. Their demands for change come after Ontario’s Auditor General released a scathing report that revealed significant flaws in the province’s commercial driver training, including unregistered training facilities cutting corners on mandatory training hours. Recommended Videos The Auditor General’s report, released on May 12, can be read here.

The Ford government continues to let Ontario’s trucking industry cut corners at the expense of road safety,” said Thunder Bay – Superior North MPP Lise Vaugeois. “Doug Ford must bring licensing back to the Ministry of Transportation, and as requested by the Ontario Trucking Association, there must be oversight of the trucking industry, otherwise we will continue to see the safety standards of Ontario’s trucking industry deteriorate.” Besides Vaugeois, three other MPPs issued the joint-statement: John Vanthof (Timiskaming – Cochrane), Guy Bourgouin (Mushkegowuk – James Bay) and Sol Mamakwa (Kiiwetinoong).

Vanthof exclaimed, “Ontario’s highways have become so unsafe due to failures in trucking oversight that other provinces are being forced to change their own rules to protect their drivers and residents.” The MPPs want the Minister of Transportation to “take this crisis seriously.” Bourgouin said, “Northerners have seen the trucking industry change in real time.

“Governments have abandoned their responsibilities to properly oversee the sector, allowing unsafe operators to undercut responsible employers, exploit vulnerable workers, and leave families paying the price.” The release calls for greater training and testing for drivers, and more enforcement on the roads. Last September, the Ontario NDP Caucus issued a release noting that after it called on the MTO to ensure highway safety, the MTO suspended 185 transport truck drivers who were deemed to have “dishonestly” obtained their class A during testing or training.

In that September release, Vaugeois, who serves as the NDP shadow minister for transportation and highways, said, “For years, the Ontario NDP has been calling for better training and testing, adequate Ministry of Transportation (MTO) enforcement, and for the province to take action.” “This problem falls on the transportation minister who refuses to listen to the truck drivers and safety advocates about these concerns,” Vaugeois says. “Minister Sarkaria must put safety first and stop willfully ignoring the trucking problems that he has been hearing for years.”

MPP Mamakwa emphasized the need for safe and reliable transportation networks, especially in the north, saying, “When governments fail to properly regulate the trucking industry, it puts drivers, passengers, and communities at risk. We need this government to take the recommendations of the Ontario Trucking Association seriously and bring back licensing to MTO.” David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media.

The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.