OTA asks Ottawa and Queen's Park for a joint enforcement pilot at the Thunder Bay inspection station
The Ontario Trucking Association wants a permanent federal-provincial enforcement base at the Shuniah station on Highway 11/17, which it says sees more than 1,300 heavy trucks a day.
The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) wants federal and provincial regulators to run a joint enforcement pilot at the Thunder Bay East Inspection Station Complex in Shuniah, Ont. The station sits on the Highway 11/17 corridor.
The association made the proposal public on Nov. 4. It is the main operational plank in its relaunched Stop Illegal Trucking campaign, according to the OTA release.
What the OTA is asking for
The OTA says the station has recently moved to round-the-clock, 24/7 staffing, and that it is the right place for a permanent, combined operations base. It wants every relevant regulatory authority at the site, working together.
The association lists the enforcement areas it would target:
- serious vehicle safety violations and aggressive driving
- corporate tax evasion
- the "Driver Inc." misclassification model
- immigration-related abuses and forced labour
- cargo security and commercial vehicle asset interdiction
It also names two other benefits. Pooling provincial and federal resources at one location would stretch enforcement capacity. And the pilot would produce tracking data to show where similar joint teams could be deployed on other freight corridors.
The numbers behind it
The OTA says Highway 11/17 at Thunder Bay is the only truck route linking Western and Eastern Canada. It puts traffic there at more than 1,300 heavy trucks and over $60 million in commodities a day.
It points to the 2026 Driver Inc. Joint Enforcement Initiative as proof the model works. That effort brought together the Ministry of Transportation (MTO), the Canada Revenue Agency, Employment and Social Development Canada and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. The OTA says it produced 676 specialized MTO inspections and 1,599 multi-agency compliance interactions at 14 inspection stations across Ontario.
"By establishing a permanent, combined operations base at the Thunder Bay gateway, both levels of government can maximize resource efficiency," said OTA president and CEO Stephen Laskowski.
Geoff Wood, the OTA's senior vice-president of policy, said the campaign is "focused on converting temporary blitzes into permanent oversight."
What happens next
This is a proposal from an industry association. The release does not say that Ottawa or Queen's Park has agreed to it, and neither government is quoted. If either one signs on, expect a joint announcement that names the agencies involved and a start date.