OOIDA takes speed limiter fight to Ottawa

OTTAWA — Leaders of an American owner-operator group are in Ottawa today, hoping to convince federal MPs to stop Ontario’s speed limiter legislation from spreading to the rest of Canada.

According to the Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association’s (OOIDA) official website, Landline, the group’s Washington, D.C.-based executives will meet with Canadian lawmakers today to "continue pressing the issue before speed limiters are mandated in more areas."

"This legislation is like an open wound. We are traveling to meet with the federal government of Canada to see if we can patch up this wound or at least make sure it doesn’t get infected and spread to the rest of Canada,” Government Affairs Counsel Laura O’Neill was quoted as saying.

Ontario passed a rule requiring trucks to have speed limiters set at 105 km/h earlier this summer despite the fact that a series of studies by Transport Canada echo some of the warnings by groups like OOIDA and the Owner-Operator Business Association of Canada (OBAC), which claim that a greater differential in speed between cars and large trucks will result in more rear-end collisions and similar crashes.

Regulators in Ontario are currently accepting public comments for Bill 41 until Aug. 31.

Quebec is on the verge of officially passing a similar rule to Ontario’s Bill 41, and while Alberta’s Transport Minister Luke Ouellette previously rejected speed limiters for that province, Deputy Premier Ron Stevens more recently told media such legislation may in fact get a closer look.

OOIDA has already threatened to sue the Ontario government if the rule takes effect, arguing that speed limiters in the lone Canadian jurisdiction are a violation of NAFTA.