Speaking notes for Paul Dunseith
November 21, 2000
Good afternoon.
Introduction:
My name is Paul Dunseith. I am a transportation enforcement
officer with the Ministry of Transportation.
That means I inspect trucks to ensure they are safe and properly
maintained. I check loads to ensure they are securely attached and to
be sure dangerous goods are properly transported and documented. I
check the qualifications and logs of drivers for hours of work. I’ve
worked with the ministry for 34 years.
I’m here this afternoon because of my position with OPSEU. I am
chair of the Ministry of Transportation Employer-Employee Relations
Committee, and chair of the central Employer-Employee Relations
Committee for OPSEU.
The issue:
Bill 137 – the Road User Customer Service Improvement Act
This law literally opens the door to gutting the Ministry of
Transportation and turning its responsibilities over to the private
sector – to make a profit out of it. It lets the ministry privatize
everything concerned with "Road User Safety."
Obviously we are opposed because this means the loss of potentially
some 2,000 union jobs. But our opposition is a great deal deeper than
that.
Just what is "Road User Safety"?
The law doesn’t define it, and its broadest interpretation could
include everything except policy planning. More narrowly, it probably
means the work of driver examiners, and the work of inspection,
investigation and enforcement.
Let’s start with Driver Examiners:
This operation brings $15 million a year to the provincial treasury.
Clearly it is a potential gold mine for a private operator. And the
bill lets private operators set their own fees – on which you will
also be charged GST. So the profit motive is pretty clear. We have a
government service that contributes to general revenues. And we’re
going to trade it in for something that sends its profits to
shareholders and will charge citizens more for the privilege.
But what’s really at stake in privatization?
- Consistency–
the same judgment applied to all driver tests across the province.
- Confidentiality
– There is a lot of personal individual information in drivers’
licence records, including addresses, medical information and a lot
more.
- Accountability –
Public servants are accountable to the people of Ontario. They take
an oath of secrecy. They are in their positions to serve the public.
Someone working for a private operator is accountable to their boss.
If the boss pushes them, they don’t have the oath of secrecy to
support them. They are not working in an environment that honours
public service. They are far less accountable.
- Potential for corruption
– Most driver examiners regularly are asked how much it would cost
for a person to pass the test. A driver’s licence is an important
document in our society and people are willing to pay to get one –
to pay well beyond the registration fee charged by the province. In
a profit-motivated environment, it will be harder to resist the
temptation. And every driver behind the wheel of a vehicle which he
or she is incompetent to control is a hazard to every other person
on Ontario roads – or sidewalks for that matter!
- It’s about service –
When a driver examiner takes time to explain to an applicant why
they failed the test, and the changes they must make in their
driving behaviour, it helps the applicant the next time. It also
helps make our roads safer. But it doesn’t bring in dollars.
Privatized operations will lack any financial incentive to do this
important educational work – and financial incentive is their
bottom line.
What it boils down to is this:
Privatizing driver examinations does nothing to improve road user
safety in Ontario. Instead it is a move in the exact opposite
direction.
Yet, the ministry has issued a Request for Qualifications on
delivery of driver examination services. It is the first step toward
privatization.
Now, l’d like to move to the area I work in – inspections,
investigation and enforcement.
It’s undoubtedly next on the list for an RFQ. And our concerns
are similar:
- Consistency
– One thing we are learning from the Walkerton Inquiry is the
importance of "institutional memory." When one Ministry
is responsible for enforcement, people know what is happening over
time and around the province. If a trucking company has a history
of violations, the enforcers know it and ride herd on that
company’s trucks. If there is a spate of problems in one part of
the province, the whole ministry is aware of it and looks for
similar instances. If the same people aren’t doing the work over
a long period of time, you lose that.
- Confidentiality and Accountability
– The same concerns raised around drivers’ licences apply here.
Public servants work in the public interest.
- Potential for corruption
-- With just-in-time delivery, truckers are under a great deal of
pressure to meet hour-by-hour deadlines. If we detain them over a
serious infraction, their livelihood is at stake. We all know what
higher gas prices have done to profit margins in the trucking
industry already. We’ve already had inspectors assaulted for
detaining truckers, to the point we have had special training in
defusing tense confrontations. This work is wide open to potential
bribery and threats. The environment of public service is an
important safeguard for citizens. You won’t find that in a
for-profit operation.
Conclusion:
The first privatization in the Ministry of Transportation was road
maintenance. The Tories downloaded that in 199x, claiming it would
save taxpayers fistfuls or dollars. What was the experience? It
actually cost a great deal more and the maintenance levels are much
lower than when the Ministry did the work itself. Why? The profit
comes from doing less work, and from cutting corners. And
profit-motivated operations aren’t going to forego the profit in the
interest of public safety.
Privatizing water monitoring is one of the chief suspects being
investigated in the Walkerton Inquiry. In Walkerton, seven people died
on the altar of "small government."
The record so far is clear:
- Privatization costs more.
- Privatization endangers public
safety.
- Privatization means you will pay
more for your driver’s licence and get less.
The obvious question is this: Why is this government committed to
shucking its responsibilities? What valid public policy objective is
served?
We ask the government to impose a moratorium on privatization until
the full long-term impact is known. We need a lot more information
before we go down this road – to make sure we can all use the road
in safety.
Thank you.
MTO
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