QUEBEC CITY — Quebec is not likely to make any changes to its proposed mandatory speed limiter bill, but one owner-operator from La Belle Province insists he’s received assurances from the government that the rule will not be passed until other provinces approve similar legislation first.

Owner-op Jean Catudal of Yamaska, Quebec, who was representing speed limiter opponents OOIDA before a government-appointed transportation commission last week, tells OOIDA’s official publication LandLine that the government could wait to implement speed limiters until the rest of Canada enacts similar legislation.

Catudal, an OOIDA member himself, was one of 15 people invited to offer comments on the proposal to cap all truck engine speed in the province at 105 km/h.

Transportation Minister Julie Boulet filed road safety Bill 42 last month, which includes, among other provisions, mandatory speed limiters. The legislation would also bring tougher penalties for speeding; drinking and driving; a pilot project involving photo radar and red-light cameras; and a ban on hand-held cell phones.

Boulet said at the time her department hoped to fast-track the bill.
Catudal reported to LandLine that the province will adopt the bill as it is written, but that he “got guarantees from the governing party and the opposition parties” that Quebec would not be the first province to enact the rule.

While standing before the commission, Catudal expressed the official OOIDA and Owner-Operator’s Business Association of Canada (OBAC) line that speed limiters on heavy trucks would lead to unsafe interactions between trucks and passenger cars due to a disproportionate vehicle speed. He added that the devices would create roadblocks of trucks unable to pass one another.

A parliamentary debate on the bill and subsequent vote in the Assembly are expected in early 2008.

In neighboring Ontario, where the speed limiter idea was first brought forth by the Ontario Trucking Association, Transportation Minister Jim Bradley confirmed that he would pursue speed limiter legislation in that province as well.

— with files from LandLine