North Battleford city council heard an earful Monday about the trucking industry's concerns with the City's recently-enacted traffic bylaw.
It seems the traffic bylaw will need to be changed in the wake of trucking industry concerns about new permit fees. Councillors indicated at Monday's meeting they want to address the industry's concerns and administration plans changes to those sections of the traffic bylaw dealing with trucking.
Council heard from Al Rosseker of the Saskatchewan Trucking Association, who called on council to put a moratorium on some of the new provisions of the bylaw.
Raising alarm bells was the bylaw's requirement for heavy vehicles to purchase permits when going off the heavy vehicle route.
Section 4 of the bylaw gives the City powers to "charge the driver or operator of a heavy vehicle driven on any street, other than the heavy vehicle route, a fee to compensate for street repair, maintenance and reconstruction costs directly attributable to damage caused by the hauling of heavy loads."
Rosseker said the bylaw would add "$6,000 in permit fees per truck" annually. He said that would not work for the mom-and-pop operations and would raise the expenses for the larger operations.
His report to council indicated truck transport already pays about $60,000 in taxes, fees and usage costs. He called the excess fees something that would drive business away, especially given the low profits of the trucking industry.
"Unfortunately the profit margins in truck transport are slim," said Rosseker, who raised the spectre of having to pass those permit fees on to customers, driving prices up.
Rosseker raised the prospect of truck transport relocating their business or taking it elsewhere.
"We don't know if that's a road anybody wants to go down at this point," he said.
He also indicated during the question-and-answer session that followed that he believed North Battleford was the only community bringing in this requirement of truckers to pay permit fees for the roads, except maybe one in Alberta.
"I'm not sure you want to go down that street," said Rosseker.
Rosseker asked for a six-month to one-year moratorium on those portions of the bylaw affecting truck transport.
Councillor Ron Crush indicated he was sympathetic to the trucking industry's concerns and noted a meeting was held with the Chamber of Commerce that also brought the matter to council's attention. Crush said perhaps this was an instance where council overreached.
Crush wondered if council had unintentionally "crossed the line between intent and economic sustainability," and expressed his willingness to listen to the association's concerns. He added he didn't want to see "surcharges pushing businesses out of the community," and generally expressed a desire for dialogue take place.
Mayor Ian Hamilton noted that dialogue has already commenced between the City and the trucking association to seek common ground, and said he would look into the truckers' suggestion of perhaps striking a committee to look into the concerns.
City Manager Jim Toye indicated administration is looking at changes to the traffic bylaw that could address the concerns. Toye also indicated the City had not been enforcing the bylaw's new trucking provisions since it was enacted.
