TORONTO, (Nov. 22, 2002) — As the Ontario Legislature prepares to repeal the Truck Transportation Act, the Ontario Trucking Association has successfully lobbied the government to amend the legislation to carry forward the provisions from the TTA which required load brokers to keep in trust any funds which are payable to carriers for work already performed.

Earlier this week, the trust account amendment was approved by a legislative committee reviewing the bill, which is expected to be passed before Christmas and come into effect once the federal government proclaims the Motor Vehicle Transport Act, which is expected to be sometime in 2003.

The trust account provisions are extremely important for carriers in the event that a load broker goes bankrupt. They were the basis for the recent successful court action by carriers in the TCT bankruptcy case in which the carriers won right to claim these funds held in trust before other creditors were paid. In this case, carriers were able to secure over $2 million that they might not have been able to claim had the trust account legislation not been there.