The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) is calling on Premier Doug Ford and several provincial ministers to intervene after Thunder Bay passed a bylaw that OTA says will restrict truck access to a key interprovincial freight corridor.
Thunder Bay City Council passed Bylaw 211-2025 on June 23, which designates new truck routes through the city and prohibits most truck traffic from using Dawson Road and Highway 102, starting Oct. . The route has historically served as a bypass around the city for interprovincial truck traffic.
The OTA says the move will force around 1,300 trucks per day — carrying approximately $60 million in goods — to divert to Highway 17, adding an estimated 7.6 million kilometers of truck travel annually. The association warns this will result in 5.7 additional tractor-trailer collisions per year, consume an extra 3 million liters of diesel fuel, and generate 7,900 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
OTA expressed its concerns earlier, immediately after the bylaw was passed. “It’s extremely concerning that at a time when barriers to inter-provincial trade are coming down that a key truck route that supports trade between Western and Central Canada as well as regional economies in the Thunder Bay area is being removed from the network,” Geoff Wood, senior vice-president policy at OTA, said in a related news release in late June.
“The implementation of this bylaw is not how to achieve safety improvements. OTA believes we all need to work together on improving road safety in Northern Ontario, including 24/7 operation of truck inspection stations and joint enforcement actions with other government agencies that intersect with the industry,” the OTA said in a new letter addressed to Premier Ford and the ministers of transportation, municipal affairs and housing, and economic development, job creation and trade. The association instead urged for “24/7 operation of truck inspection stations and joint enforcement actions with other government agencies.”
The association has asked the provincial government to work with Thunder Bay to help remove the bylaw.
