Easing driver training rules in Alberta is recipe for disaster
Loophole could create an opening for less oversight, says Lorraine Sommerfeld.
Humboldt. Most of us had never heard of the Saskatchewan city before a violent crash in April 2018 between a semi and a bus claimed the lives of 16 people — mostly teens — and forever changed the lives of countless more. Now most of us will never forget it.
The driver of the rig plowed through a stop sign, hitting the bus full of hockey players and team personnel, and is serving an eight-year sentence after pleading guilty. The crash highlighted the lack of driver training and oversight, and three provinces — Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba — tightened regulations in the industry as a result.
Now, with a new government in Alberta, that province has again relaxed training of those piloting semis for agricultural use and for school buses. The outcry was immediate, with parents who had lost children incensed and taking to social media.
CTV reported on Oct. 2 that Alberta’s Minister of Transportation Ric McIver said “a review is underway, but it’s still too early in the process to have even started consultations.”
By Oct. 8, the Globe and Mail was reporting it was a done deal.
McIver’s office issued a statement on some of the licensing changes, including this bit: “Regarding farm workers and school bus drivers, the NDP government first issued an extension, which the current government then extended to accommodate the start of the school year and harvest. The government will be consulting with key stakeholders on this matter, and safety will remain paramount.”
It’s that paragraph that has people incensed. Using only vague terminology, there is no promise from the government that continual exemptions won’t lead to permanent ones.
Reverting to previous standards, deciding they’re good enough for school kids, and also deciding a semi isn’t a semi if it isn’t being driven very far, will be met with harsh backlash.
Members of Alberta’s agricultural sector were pushing back against the new training mandate. Farmers wanted to know why their drivers needed weeks of expensive new training to be driving from field to field. Same with school bus drivers.
Class One drivers (tractor trailer) and Class Two drivers (bus) were originally included in new, stricter rules brought into effect in March of 2019 through MELT (mandatory entry level training).
Farm drivers and school bus drivers were given an exemption to compliance until Nov. 30 and July 30 of this year, respectively. That has now been extended an additional year, into July for school bus operators and March 2021 for farmers. Those drivers would be subject only to an as-yet-unspecified abstract review.
Buried in the proposed changes to ease up on those two classes of drivers is the real kicker, from the Globe and Mail report: “Drivers with Class 1 and Class 2 licences who received farming or school-bus exemptions will be eligible to keep their commercial licences without taking the enhanced safety tests. Instead, Alberta will evaluate driving records and waive tests for drivers who regulators deem safe; after that, the drivers would have full commercial licences that would not be restricted to farming or school-bus driving.”
It’s a backdoor loophole that could not only create a non-level playing field for commercial drivers, but that could also allow far less rigorously trained drivers on Alberta’s roadways.
McIver’s office keeps indicating the former NDP government created the problem by dismantling Alberta’s privatized licensing system, creating a backlog of drivers waiting to be tested. Every government blames the last, but there is a glut of already qualified drivers looking for work. Driving.ca