The provincial NDP continues to push for highway improvements in northern Ontario.
A Private Member’s Bill that was debated at Queen’s Park on Thursday includes having the province take back the responsibility of winter road maintenance.
Mushkegowuk-James Bay MPP Guy Bourgouin says private contractors are not working effectively.
“The Ministry then issues fines when violations are reported, but once the fine is paid, nothing changes. The same problem repeats. There is neither rigorous follow-up nor true accountability,” says Bourgouin.
“This lack of service results in a prolonged closure caused by companies that prioritize profit over safety.”
The NDP also want the government to return to training transport drivers.
“We know frankly that there is corruption taking place, and those drivers are being put on the road. Here’s your license, here’s the key, off you go,” says Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Lise Vaugeois.
“We have even seen inside trucks where the brake pedal has a red tape on it, the gas pedal has green tape on it, and a driver has had to ask somebody else to back the truck up at an inspection station because they haven’t been trained to do it.”
Vaugeois says truck inspection stations also have to stay open at least 12 hours a day.
She points to the new station in Shuniah township, which she says is rarely open.
“What I would like to request of the ministry is that they come to us in our regions and ask us how we can have a regional recruitment plan to get people to staff that station,” says Vaugeois.
“We can staff those stations. They need to be staffed. These stations do vital work, pulling unsafe vehicles off the road, making sure that people are adequately licensed, that the weights are correct.”
