MPP Amarjot Sandhu, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure, recently introduced a private member’s bill that would require a one-year waiting period after receiving a Class G driver’s licence to test for a commercial driver’s licence.
On an X posting on social media, MPP Sandhu stated this bill will allow future commercial drivers to be more prepared, confident, and equipped to challenge the commercial test. Sandhu stated this measure was driven by his desire to continue improving road safety and reduce collisions.
The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA), which has been calling for stricter truck safety standards and more enforcement of violators who exploit new entrants coming into the trucking industry, lauded the proposal.
“OTA is calling on all trucking and road safety stakeholders to support MPP Sandhu’s private members bill,” said OTA President & CEO Stephen Laskowski. “This bill needs to become law to improve road safety and help protect new people to Canada.”
In a survey conducted by OTA during the fall of 2023, 96 percent of respondents operating on Ontario highways identified persistent problems related to highway safety and infrastructure in Northern Ontario, specifically. Nearly 80 percent of respondents want better trained truck drivers as there is unease with sharing the road truck drivers who are not properly trained or prepared professionally; while over 70 percent said more oversight for unsafe drivers and fleets is needed.
OTA has also sounded the alarm on labour abuse schemes targeting new people to Canada, including those using federal and provincial programs, and those coming to Ontario on student visas. Consequently, OTA has received reports detailing an interconnected web of participants including immigration consultants, training schools, and carriers that charge obscene amounts of money (ranging from $20,000 to $80,000) to new entrants looking for a job in the Ontario trucking industry.
Often, this exorbitant sum of money is paid back to one or more of these parties by the individual “working off’ the debt at wage rates well below minimum wage, and certainly well below industry standards. In some cases, these individuals are forced to live in the truck or in precarious housing arrangements, OTA has been told.
“MPP Sandhu’s bill is not a panacea to improve all the road safety challenges we are seeing today or protect all new people to Canada being exploited by unscrupulous trucking companies and others involved in what we know is a rapidly growing, underhanded labour pipeline, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” said Laskowski.