The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) is congratulating Premier Doug Ford for securing a second consecutive Progressive Conservative majority, citing several commitments to the province’s trucking industry.

Preliminary results from Elections Ontario show the Progressive Conservatives gaining ground in the June 2 election with 83 seats, leaving the New Democrats with 31, and Liberals with eight.

“The Ford government has worked very hard with the trucking industry over the last four years to bring in measures that greatly assisted our sector through the pandemic as well as items unrelated to Covid,” OTA chairman Wendell Erb said in a statement.

“We appreciate the introduction of legislation guaranteeing access to washrooms for truck drivers, third-party certified ELDs [electronic logging devices], and much-needed infrastructure projects throughout Ontario, including the Bradford bypass and Highway 413, among others.”

The provincial government’s most recent budget committed $25.1 billion for highways over the next decade.

“Highway 413 is not only a fundamental piece of infrastructure, but also a key part of Ontario’s success in the future,” OTA president Stephen Laskowski had said in the budget document.

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca, a one-time Ontario transportation minister, vowed to scrap the highway project if elected. His party failed to regain official party status and he resigned after failing to secure a seat in the Vaughan-Woodbridge riding north of Toronto.

Ontario’s New Democratic Party (NDP) had promised to remove tolls for trucks using the privately owned Highway 407 if elected. Andrea Horwath also resigned as the official opposition party lost ground in the fourth election under her leadership.