REGULATIONS AMENDING THE
MOTOR VEHICLE TRANSPORT ACT REGULATIONS

Motor Carrier Safety Fitness Regulations

The Motor Carrier Safety Fitness Certificate Regulations are new regulations proposed as amendments to the Motor Vehicle Transport Act Regulations. The Act requires all motor carriers, including foreign-based motor carriers, to have a safety fitness certificate in order to operate on Canadian roads.

These new regulations are designed to establish a common approach to safety ratings to ensure that comparable safety performance results in a comparable safety rating regardless of the province in which the carrier operates. The system will allow safe motor carriers to compete across Canada on a level playing field, and eventually across North America. These regulations would also improve safety and reduce the risk of commercial vehicle collisions.

The specific purpose of these proposed regulations is to define safety fitness certificate and provide a framework to enable provinces and territories to implement, consistently across Canada, a safety rating system for commercial drivers who operate in more than one province (extra-provincial motor carriers).

Under the regulations, provinces and territories would monitor the safety performance of all extra-provincial motor carriers licensed in their jurisdiction. They would maintain a complete safety compliance profile of each motor carrier, using input from all jurisdictions in which those carriers operate. All carriers would receive an initial safety fitness certificate of “Satisfactory - Unaudited,” until their safety performance and/or a facility audit is rated. The rating categories are “Satisfactory (Audited),” “Conditional” or “Unsatisfactory.” A carrier rated “Unsatisfactory” could be prohibited from operating on Canadian roads.

The Government of Canada has the constitutional responsibility for regulating motor carriers (truck and bus) that operate between provinces and internationally, but the Motor Vehicle Transport Act (MVTA) delegates the authority to regulate these carriers to the provinces.

In 1987, the MVTA was amended to remove economic regulation of the extra-provincial trucking industry and to put in place a regime based on safety fitness. After the amendments in 1987, the federal, provincial and territorial governments committed to ensuring an acceptable level of safety performance by the motor carrier industry, primarily through the National Safety Code.

In 1987, the federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for transportation agreed to develop and implement a National Safety Code (NSC) to encourage trucking safety, promote efficiency in the motor carrier industry, and achieve consistent safety standards across Canada. The NSC was based upon a consolidation of existing provincial and territorial legislation and regulations, supplemented with new initiatives designed to further enhance safety across the country.

The NSC is comprised of 15 standards covering all aspects of commercial vehicle, driver and motor carrier safety, developed collaboratively by governments and stakeholders under the auspices of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA), the official body responsible for coordinating matters relating to motor vehicle transportation and highway safety. It includes members from provincial, territorial and federal governments as well as associate members from transportation-related organizations.

Provincial and territorial governments are responsible for ensuring that their safety ratings systems comply with the requirements of the Motor Vehicle Transport Act regulations. Transport Canada will monitor the implementation and enforcement of these ratings and the Motor Carrier Safety Fitness Certificate Regulations through various channels, including the appropriate CCMTA standing committees and discussions with jurisdictions and industry representatives. Provisions have been made in the MVTA to sanction jurisdictions that do not adhere to the regulations by revoking their authority to issue safety fitness certificates, without which motor carriers cannot operate.

May 2006