The MPP for Mushkegowuk James Bay presented a new private member’s bill at Queen’s Park to help young trucker drivers travel in winter conditions.
Guy Bourgouin says his bill proposes that Mandatory Entry Level Training or MELT is mandated for Class D licenses, and that both Class A and D licenses include a dedicated winter training module.
“Truck drivers would be exposed to simulators that would give them experience to winter conditions like black ice, like slush, like snow, winter conditions, whiteouts,” he said.
Bourgouin says he wants to follow the lead in other industries and provinces.
“We train forest operators on simulators for feller bunchers and pilots to fly planes,” he said. “We need to do the same things for truck drivers and it’s being done in other provinces like Quebec they’re doing it.”
Bourgouin hopes the Conservatives will put partisan politics aside and not only support the bill but help develop it to make highways safer for everyone.
