Ontario moves to regulate towing industry in bid to stop violence and corruption

Theglobeandmail.com
March 2, 2021
Molly Hayes

After years of deadly violence and corruption within the Greater Toronto Area tow-truck industry, the Ontario government is drafting legislation and regulations that would license and standardize towing across the province, The Globe and Mail has learned.

The details of the province’s plans are expected to be made public Tuesday, according to senior government officials with knowledge of the plans. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they were not permitted to speak publicly ahead of the announcement.

These developments -- long called for by industry stakeholders -- come after a years-long turf war within the industry, and after a months-long consultation process by the government’s towing task force, which included representatives from the towing and insurance industries, municipalities and law enforcement, as well as consumers.

As a Globe and Mail revealed in an investigation last February, dozens of tow trucks were burned and at least four men with ties to the industry have been killed within the GTA, as companies compete for bigger slices of a lucrative segment of the industry known as collision towing or “accident chasing.”

The government sources could not provide a timeline on Monday for the legislative process.

In the short term, they said, the province will be expanding the scope of a tow-zone pilot that aims to do away with a “first-on-scene” rule that many stakeholders say rewards tow-truck drivers for dangerously racing each other to crash scenes.

The pilot project, as the Globe first reported in December, will see certain sections of provincial highways such as the 400, 401 and QEW contracted out to designated tow-truck companies. But the pilot was initially slated to apply only to towing for commercial vehicles such as transport trucks, and some stakeholders expressed concern that this would be too narrow a scope to effectively curb the violence between tow-truck operators -- who are largely fighting over personal vehicles.

The government sources confirmed Monday that the tow-zone pilot will now include contracts for the towing of personal vehicles.

After a car crash, some peripheral businesses, such as body shops, car-rental companies and physiotherapy clinics, will pay tow-truck drivers to send clients their way. As a result of these kickback schemes, a single towed car can yield thousands of dollars -- and the industry is rife with fraud. In some cases, crashes are being staged or faked altogether.

In Ontario, small-claims courts are clogged with disputes between insurance companies and tow-truck operators and body shops. In late 2019, a Toronto-area lawyer who specialized in representing insurance companies in civil lawsuits against tow-truck operators was forced to shut down her firm after the office was twice set on fire and then shot up in broad daylight.

The plan is now for a single approved company to be contracted to handle each designated stretch of highway (with subcontracting in some cases) for a two-year period, with the option to extend. Procurement is expected to begin this spring, and the pilot will start this summer.

Also expected to be part of Tuesday’s announcement is the creation of an OPP-led joint operation team that will work with municipal police forces to share intelligence and investigate criminal activity within the industry.

Since last summer, at least 30 people have been charged in an investigation led by York Regional Police into the violence and corruption in the towing industry.

Separate towing-related probes have also led to corruption charges against seven police officers across the province -- three with the Ottawa Police Service, three with the Ontario Provincial Police and one with the Toronto Police Service. A number of other police officers have been suspended from their duties.

The government sources said a “technical advisory group” has been established to help draft the legislation -- which, in addition to a licensing framework, will also propose establishing a regulatory body for the industry, and standardizing operational and equipment standards for tow-truck drivers.