NORTHEAST — For Northeast MLA Fred Bradshaw, new trespassing laws and semi truck driver rules were the highlights of this fall’s legislative session.
“The trespass one was very critical, I think,” the Carrot River Valley MLA said. “A lot of farmers had called me on that and wanted that.”
The new legislation requires permission before somebody enters a farmers’ private property. Previous laws required farmers to post do not trespass sign on their land to stop others from coming in.
Bradshaw said the biggest concern he heard from farmers was hunters and ATVers coming onto their private property with unwashed trucks and ATVs.
“We have people who may be coming from Alberta and the big concern that I heard in my office was mainly to do with clubroot.”
Clubroot is a fungus that can spread when soil infected with millions of spores drops down onto uninfected land.
The MLA said the legislation was needed and that the majority of hunters already ask permission to enter private property.
“That would be one of the main things for the Northeast that is coming through and I had a lot of farmers asking for that.”
Also a highlight for Bradshaw were the new mandatory training requirements for commercial semi drivers. As of March 15, they will be required to take a minimum of 121.5 hours of training. Farmers will have to get a “F” endorsement to drive semi truck if they don’t already have a Class 1 licence.
“We’re still working on that. We’ve got it for the commercial drivers. The farm one, we wanted to study it just a little bit more for the farmers.”
Right now, Ontario is the only province in the country that has mandatory training.
“What we’re hoping is once we’ve got everything figured out and in that this will go across Canada.”
Also introduced this session was a Clare's Law policy that allows police to inform the partners of those with a history of violence about their past, a commitment to apologize for the Sixties Scoop and new leaves under the The Workers’ Compensation Act.
