The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) says new legislation introduced this week by Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack is a positive step toward improving highway safety.
The proposed bill would require a waiting period before newly licensed drivers can apply to test for a commercial driver’s license. While the act does not state the length of the mandatory minimum waiting period between getting a Class G and Class A (commercial) driver’s license, OTA said it supports the measure, adding that it mirrors elements of a private member’s bill previously tabled by MPP Amarjot Sandhu before the last provincial election.
OTA president Stephen Laskowski called the legislation “a step in the right direction,” but emphasized that legislators must work with industry and the public while keeping in mind protections pertaining to highway safety, immigration abuse and labor rights.
“Immigration is important to the future of our sector. But right now, the system is broken in our industry and [it is] being manipulated by unscrupulous carriers in an orchestrated manner to abuse sources of foreign labor,” Laskowski said.
“This bill is critical in identifying how commercial licenses are accessed by newcomers to Ontario, who want to work in the trucking industry; but we must also ensure that we design the system by dealing with issues of employee abuse abuses and lack of driver training oversight.”
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