Timiskaming-Cochrane MPP John Vanthof's end-of-year column focuses on highway safety.
In Timiskaming-Cochrane, Highways 11 and 17 are our main streets. This is a concept that many southern politicians don’t grasp. To get groceries, go to work, or to the hospital, we all need to share the Trans-Canada, a two-lane road, with cross-country truck commercial traffic, commercial traffic that is increasing every day, and so are the accidents. The Minster of Transportation often states that Ontario has the safest roads in North America, he should drive 11 or 17.
Highway safety has always been at the top of our list. At first, it was winter maintenance standards. My office created the Northern Road Report so we could demonstrate to the government that maintenance was inadequate. We issued a report to the Auditor General. My NDP colleagues and I brought it up repeatedly in the legislature. We worked together with the companies who were contracted to do the maintenance. The problem has never been the front-line equipment operators who face the worst conditions of all. The government was forced to raise the standards and the funding to meet them. There are still gaps, the companies are facing driver shortages, but overall, it is better.
The main area of concern has moved from winter maintenance to commercial truck traffic, both the amount and the training of some of the drivers. Anyone who has driven on 11 or 17 has had a white-knuckle-on-the steering-wheel experience or sometimes, something tragically worse.
These anecdotal experiences are supported by evidence. The Auditor General issued a report in 2018 showing that some trucking companies were recruiting, training, and licensing their own drivers, an obvious conflict of interest. These companies had the worst accident statistics in the country. CBC Marketplace recently exposed fraud in commercial truck driver training in Ontario, showing that the situation had worsened. The Ford government has been aware of this problem since being elected but has been very slow to deal with it. The NDP has put forward a motion that all drivers applying for a commercial license should be tested by an MTO tester, not the company they work for, or a third-party private company.
Other provinces are taking action. On Nov. 26, 2024, Quebec’s SAAQ announced that they were starting a campaign on four major routes to regularly pull over trucks (mostly Ontario-based trucks, it said) to check licenses and insurance. This will also help them pull vehicles off the road which are not well-maintained. The MTO has been conducting blitzes in our area and the results have been disturbing. In one day, nearly half of the trucks were pulled off the road for lack of maintenance. While the blitzes are welcome, it is obvious that more is needed. Having weigh scales open on a regular basis would make a difference.
To add insult, local log trucking companies with safe equipment and good accident records are having trouble affording insurance for drivers because they are deemed high risk, yet these are not the trucks pushing us off the highway.
We have also constantly pushed for highway infrastructure improvements as well, the promised rest area at the Field cut off, and the 2 plus 1 pilot project. It is a never-ending battle to fight, but it’s one very worth fighting. It’s all our families on that ‘main street.’
For more information contact [email protected].
John Vanthof,
MPP, Timiskaming-Cochrane
