‘We will lock you up.’ Ontario announces overhaul of tow truck industry amid turf war


Ontario is overhauling the GTA’s violence-plagued towing industry and assembling a task force, the provincial government announced Monday.

The province-led task force will help develop a regulatory model that will “increase safety and enforcement, clarify protections for consumers, improve industry standards and consider tougher penalties for violators,” according to the government’s news release.

Over the past two years, the industry has seen at least four murders, numerous arsons, brazen shootings and fraud across Greater Toronto.

The task force will work with police, municipal and industry partners, Premier Doug Ford said, calling the violence “totally unacceptable.”

“To all the bad actors out there, my message is clear: the party’s over,” Ford said Monday at his daily briefing.

“We’re coming for you, we’ll catch you, and we will lock you up.”

York police said earlier this month that four distinct criminal organizations had been fighting over turf in a complex fraud ecosystem that involves kickbacks and insurance fraud at auto centres, physiotherapy clinics, car rentals, body shops and more.

Transportation minister Caroline Mulroney said that her ministry and the solicitor general will lead the task force, which has met twice already. Representatives from four other ministries as well as the Ontario Provincial Police will also be involved.

Tow truck licensing was previously regulated at the municipal level.

But only about 20 of the province’s 444 municipalities have a system in place, Teresa Di Felice, assistant vice-president of government and community relations at the Canadian Automobile Association, told the Star earlier this month.

In May, as part of a joint-forces operation called Project Platinum, police arrested 20 people across southern Ontario, seizing guns, cash and drugs in a project targeting organized crime violence in the GTA tow truck industry.

York Regional police seized 11 tow trucks, a machinegun, 16 handguns, 13 shotguns, nine rifles, a sawed-off shotgun and brass knuckles, among other weapons. Police also announced the seizure of five kilograms of fentanyl, 1.5 kilograms of cocaine, 1.25 kilograms of crystal meth, 1.5 kilograms of cannabis and more than $500,000 in cash.

The announcement comes one week after 11 people were arrested, including a veteran Toronto police officer, for the alleged theft of an encrypted police radio, among other charges.

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With files from Peter Edwards and Jacob Lorinc.





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