Minister announces new weights and dimensions standards for transport vehicles

Walter Noel, Minister of Government Services and Lands, announced today that an agreement has been reached which will establish uniform regulations governing the weights and dimensions of highway transport vehicles operating within Atlantic Canada.

Mr. Noel said: "For the past two years, the Atlantic provinces have held discussions to address this issue, one of the most commonly cited barriers to efficient truck transportation within the region.

"The action we are taking will reduce interprovincial trade barriers and red tape and help lower transportation costs for all concerned."

The new measures, which will be implemented later this fall in all of the Atlantic provinces, call for the introduction of changes in weights and dimensions regulations and those changes will apply to all new vehicles and any existing vehicles that comply, later this year. A transition period, until December 2009, will allow trucking companies and equipment manufacturers to phase out equipment that does not comply with the proposed new standards.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Copies of the new standards will be distributed to the news media in the near future.

Media contact: Geoff Ewing, Motor Registration Division, (709) 729-2520.

2001 06 29                                                     4:05 p.m.