Report from CCMTA

MCC General Manager Wayne Daub had the pleasure of attending the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) Annual meeting and conference hosted in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories in early June. The members of CCMTA are comprised of provincial government transportation employees from all 13 provinces and territories in Canada, along with public service departments, and public insurance corporations. Along with the Board of Directors, CCMTA has three major committees consisting of Compliance and Regulatory Affairs (CRA), Drivers and Vehicles (DV), and Road Safety Research and Policies (RSRP).

The Committee that serves the best interest of the MCC is the RSRP Committee. Wayne was invited to sit in on two full days of Committee meetings in Yellowknife.

The current RSRP priorities consist of:

1. Impaired driving, including cannabis legalization and how to conduct an accurate road sobriety test, how does cannabis in the blood equate to cannabis in the brain, what can be done to assure that an impaired charge is being correctly laid and how to successfully prove it so that it will withstand scrutiny in court. This sub-group deals with all levels of impairment from alcohol, to prescription medication, to drugs including cannabis.
2. Autonomous vehicles, even though they may be 10 years out from being main stream vehicles on Canadian roads, they do exist, and are becoming more sophisticated annually. During this session, it was noted that motorcycles currently pose a significant problem to the manufacturers of autonomous vehicles as they fail to detect a motorcycle until the vehicle hits it.
3. Distracted driving seems to be on the increase again and a study recently conducted shows that the use of hand held devices is on the rise and is currently surpassing 2014 statistics, which is when Canada experienced its last plateau.
4. There is discussion surrounding this committee about adding vulnerable road users to their list of priorities, this is of great interest to MCC and we will be watching closely to see if the committee does decide to include this.

The relationships that can be struck between key provincial and federal government bureaucrats in their respective ministries dealing with transportation is a welcome addition to the MCC’s arsenal of stakeholders and Wayne looks forward to continuing to build on those relationships. Members of the CCMTA seemed to welcome involvement from the motorcycling community, all and all the beginning of a great partnership.

Wayne Daub is the General Manager at the Motorcyclists Confederation of Canada. He attended the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) Annual meeting and conference, and put together this report.