TORONTO — It’s essential that Ontario makes more of an effort to encourage private investment and ensures that the supply chain is reliable and predictable by maintaining investment in highway infrastructure.

That’s the message from the Ontario Trucking Association to the ruling Ontario Liberals and opposition parties. In a pre-budget submission today at Queen’s Park to the Standing Committee on Finance, OTA President David Bradley noted that trucking, naturally the province’s dominant mode of freight transportation, is a good leading indicator of economic activity. But right now, the forecast looks stormy.

OTA wants action to correct the drop in southbound
trade and the downturn in manufacturing activity

“The current situation is not pretty,” said Bradley, referring to the drop in southbound trade and the downturn in manufacturing activity brought on by the value of the Canadian dollar, the slowdown in U.S. demand, ongoing border problems and the rise of China as manufacturer to the world.

“Ontario is not going to lower its wages, labor standards and environmental laws in order to compete with countries like China,” he said. “We have to be smarter; more efficient; more productive.”

Bradley also called on the province to get on board with the industry’s enviroTruck initiative by providing tax incentives or rebates and removing regulatory barriers to accelerate the penetration of the smog-free, low GHG tractors in 2008-09.

As for how Ontario truckers are taxed on equipment , Bradley said “it is unfortunate … that it appears talks to harmonize the PST-MJVT have led nowhere.” That modification, adds Bradley, would provide the industry — “which is discriminated against in the way its business inputs are taxed compared to most other Ontario sectors” — with significant investment stimulus.

Bradley pointed to a growing number of jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada that have introduced financial incentives to replace older trucking equipment. “It’s an economic and environmental win-win,” he said.

Through their umbrella organization, the Canadian Trucking Alliance, trucking representatives recently convinced B.C. to adopt such incentives for 2007 model trucks.