Time to licence tow-truck operators

Re: Tow truck operators band together, call for price regulation, April 2.

More than two years ago, on Nov. 9, 2015, your paper reported that a tow-truck driver was charged in a deadly crash at the intersection of Meadowlands and Viewmount Drive in Ottawa. That crash took the life of 55-year-old Giai Ly. His 13-year-old daughter, a passenger, suffered serious injuries.

At that time, you quoted Ottawa police Sgt. John Kiss, who sat on a provincial committee examining Ontario’s towing industry. He stated that “the city urgently needs to begin licensing tow truck drivers.

“That just baffles me,” he said. “You need a licence for your hotdog cart or for snow removal company, but you don’t need one for your tow truck.”

He added that “licensing would give the city better control over the industry. Misbehave and your licence would be yanked. That’s the biggest incentive. If you’re wreck-chasing or breaking the bylaw, we just pull your licence. It seems like such a simple solution. I’m at a loss why it isn’t being implemented.”

Although the province requires a commercial vehicle operator’s registration to operate a tow truck, here we are more than two years later and nothing has been done at the municipal level. Why, after all this time, has Coun. Shad Qadri not committed to at least licensing the industry? Qadri said that idea likely will have to wait until after the municipal election in October. Two years after an urgent call from Sgt. Kiss.

Please voice your concerns for the Ly family and others still suffering at the hands of an unregulated industry by emailing your councillor and/ or speaking up at the town hall meetings where they pander for your votes.

Harvey Chatterton, Kanata