Expecting operators to clear blockades under the Emergencies Act is less complicated said than done are what the associations representing the towing industry in Ontario and Alberta say.
Mark Graves, president of the Provincial Towing Association of Ontario, says demanding private companies remove trucks could be a massive undertaking and therefore the government has to first show that from threats to safety and business, it’ll protect the industry.
During a phone interview, Graves said “This is all about the protection of our employees.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the primary time since it came into force in 1988.
One of the extraordinary powers that enforcement now has is the ability to demand towing companies, either help police remove vehicles from blockades when asked or police could seize their tow trucks to get rid of the vehicles themselves.
The blockades are “driven by an ideology to overthrow the government’’ said the Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, telling a conference Tuesday that there are elements within them that pose a significant threat to safety.
He pointed to Monday’s police seizure of multiple weapons from the blockade at the U. S. border crossing at Coutts, Alta., where traffic was paralyzed for quite a time period. On Tuesday, RCMP arrested 13 people, and all trucks and other vehicles left the blockade.
Mendicino said the weapons seizure should be a warning sign to Canadians about “what it’s that we are precisely managing here.’’
On Wednesday, handed out notices to protesters encamped there, telling them they “must leave the realm now.” were as the officers walked along Wellington Street in Ottawa.
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Graves said it’s unclear when the govt. Will use its power to call towing companies to assist expedite the removal of the Ottawa blockade.
“It won’t be easy. It won’t be safe,” he said.
“Over the subsequent few days, they’re calling for 10 to fifteen centimeters of snow mixed with rain. This will make it even harder to pander to and therefore the city is going to be in gridlock. They won’t be ready to remove snow. They won’t be ready to move trucks.”
Don Getschel, president of the Towing and Recovery Association of Alberta, said some companies have received death threats since the protests began and firms are concerned about the longer-term of their businesses.
At least one company in Alberta received threats because it absolutely was seen near Coutts, he added.
“There (were) threats of arson. To burn their equipment down or burn their facility are what people were threatening them.”
He said “because the “industry has tried to stay neutral through all of this, it’s generally up to individual towing operators and firms to choose whether to assist police to dismantle blockades,” and has “stakes on each side.”
“It’s hard on behalf of me to observe. We’re a part of the industry furthermore as we work directly daily with enforcement.”