MONTAGUE, P.E.I. — Just when you thought Canada was getting its interprovincial act together, in comes this: If you want to run a Long Combination Vehicle (LCV) in Quebec, you must have a “T” designation on your commercial driver’s license.

But neither the provinces nor any of the states have such a designation.

Ergo, LCV drivers from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and the U.S., can’t legally pull the things in La Belle Province.

That’s the word from the the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association’s (APTA) Jean St. Onge, who chairs the APTA’s committee overseeing the LCV projects.

St. Onge was making his report to the APTA’s annual general meeting at the splendid Brudenell Resort, 30 minutes outside Charlottetown. He also told the gathering that despite protestations to the contrary, the province of New Brunswick continues to insist that LCVs in that province have high-mounted trailer lights, add-ons that are not obligatory in any other jurisdiction where LCVs run.

At first, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick mandated the high-mounted lights. But recently, prominent trucker Wes Amour of Armour Transportation Systems protested the lights.

They don’t add to safety and because drivers have to climb up on the trailers to mount the lights on an as-needed basis, they actually increase the risk of personal injury.

The maritime fleets participating in the LCV study include Armour, St-Onge’s employer Midland, Sunbury, and Day and Ross.

St. Onge told the APTA that Nova Scotia is reconsidering the high-mounted-light requirement, but that New Brunswick has affectively “dug its heels in.” And Ontario has gone so far as to ban the things outright, almost in defiance of the Maritime regulations.

The Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association made a formal motion this week supporting Armour’s opposition to the high-mounted trailer lights.