The price of auto insurance in Ontario is the notoriously thorny issue that drove hundreds of tow truck drivers to converge on Queen's Park yesterday in a protest aimed at efforts to regulate their industry.
Rules contained within Bill 15, scheduled to come into effect early next year require operators to keep log books and work restricted hours as well as provide drivers with an itemized list of services; moves the government maintains will reduce auto insurance rates in the province by 15%.
Conversely, says Mark Terenzi of the Brampton-Caledon branch of the industry group North American Auto Accident Pictures Towing Division, the new rules will drive up operators' costs and in turn raise the prices consumers must pay for towing services.
"It's going to put a lot of people out of business," Terenzi told one media outlet. "It takes a lot away from the driver's ability to earn an income."
The drivers gathered at a series of locations over the GTA in the early morning before departing for the provincial legislature in a demonstration strikingly similar to the action taken in 2014 when the legislation was initially before law-makers.
