Whereas the Province of British Columbia issues transport vehicle permits for over-height, over-weight and over-width vehicles, which include the requirement to obtain permits from local jurisdictions through which they will travel; And whereas the Ministry of Transportation does not enforce the requirement to obtain local jurisdiction permits, and many of the haulers do not obtain permits from the local jurisdictions, meaning local governments are not made aware of excessive weight, height and width vehicles on their roads and therefore cannot reasonably control such road use and cover costs for road maintenance associated with excessive loads: Therefore be it resolved that the Province of British Columbia review its regulation covering transport vehicle permits and make changes such that obtaining local jurisdiction vehicle permits is enforced, that the hauling companies must communicate and receive local jurisdiction approval to drive on local roads and that they further make changes to streamline permit issuance and fee collection to enable haulers one point of contact to obtain permits to travel through multiple jurisdictions.
Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Government has interest in ensuring that commercial vehicles obtain all relevant required permits when traveling through or within a municipality, but due to inconsistencies between municipalities on requirements, or lack thereof, for oversize and overweight permits it would not be possible for government to undertake meaningful enforcement nor change regulations at this time. If all municipalities bylaws respecting commercial vehicles were aligned then this resolution could be pursued further. Government is rolling out a new commercial vehicle permitting system that will have the capability of issuing multi-jurisdictional permits in the future.