A) The Current Situation:
Under the Highway Traffic Act, R.S.O. 1990, H.8, the
Minister of Transportation has the duty and responsibility to take the
following steps in the interests of public safety:
- Issue vehicle permits and revoke them;
- Maintain permit records;
- Issue license plates;
- Issue Commercial Vehicle Operator Registration Certificates;
- Issue drivers licenses and test persons to see if they are fit
to drive:
- The purpose of this [Driver License] Part is to protect the
public by ensuring that,
- the privilege of driving on a highway is granted to, and
retained by, only those persons who demonstrate that they are
likely to drive safely; and
- Enforce equipment standards for vehicles (including lights,
brakes, safe tires, and roadworthiness);
- Enforce maintenance requirements;
- Enforce load, dimensions and total weight limits;
- Enforce the rules of the road (including driving offenses such
as illegal turn, failure to stop, yielding right of way, stopping
for pedestrians at crosswalks, etc., etc.)
The Minister is to carry out these functions through delegation to
Ministry staff. The Minister can use "officers appointed for the
purpose of carrying out provisions of this act." Such enforcement
officers have to be persons on staff with the Ministry. In addition,
police can enforce various provisions.
Under the Public Vehicles Act and the Truck
Transportation Act, bus companies and truckers are regulated
through operating licensing requirements and enforcement of standards.
The enforcement is to be done by the Ministry, "an officer of the
Ministry…", or, in certain cases, the police.
In sum, the Minister of Transportation and his staff (or the
police) are to regulate road user safety.
B) Under the New Act:
The new Act allows the Minister of Transportation to
transfer all these functions to the private sector. Specifically, the Act
permits the Minister to enter into an agreement with private sector
companies to delegate to that company "any of the powers or
duties of the Minister, the Ministry or an officer or employee of the
Ministry under an Act or regulation relating to road user
safety". The Act further permits the private sector
company to establish the fees to be charged to the public and to
collect and retain all of those fees.
The Act does allow the Minister to set conditions on the
private sector transfer "as the Minister considers advisable in
the public interest". The Act also makes it an offense for
the private sector company to fail to comply with the conditions which
are set. But, the Act does not contain any guidelines or
criteria for establishing when such transfers to the private sector
shall take place. There is no requirement that road user safety be
maintained.
Under the Act, Cabinet may make regulations further
specifying which road user safety functions can be transferred, to
whom, and on what conditions. Those matters will only be spelled out
after the Act is passed through the Legislature.
In sum, this Act permits the government to arrange private sector
licensing of motor vehicles and drivers, private sector monitoring of
vehicles and drivers and private sector inspection and enforcement of
standards and rules of the road. The Act itself does not
contain any limitations on when, how and to whom and under what
conditions the transfer to the private sector will take place.
