THUNDER BAY — Mushkegowuk–James Bay MPP Guy Bourgouin and his northern NDP colleagues, including Thunder Bay–Superior North’s Lise Vaugeois, are trying again to make it illegal for motorists to cross double yellow lines when passing another vehicle.
First introduced in 2023, when it didn’t get past first reading in the legislature, his private member’s bill proposes an amendment to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act to make such passing punishable by a fine and demerit points.
The amendment would bring Ontario law in line with highway laws in all other provinces, Bourgoin said Wednesday after tabling what he calls Chad’s Law in the chamber.
Vaugeois said in a news conference Wednesday morning that it “seems so obvious” the bill should pass.
“If every other province in the country has a law that says you can’t pass on a double yellow line,” she told reporters in Toronto, “why doesn’t Ontario?”
The governing Progressive Conservatives “don’t always like to give the opposition credit,” Vaugeois said later in a phone interview.
“But, you know, that doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is that highway safety has been improved.
“So this one just seems so obvious. I can’t figure out for the life of me why we don’t have it already.”
She said some government MPPs are from the north “but we’re not getting any support from the Conservative side. And I can’t imagine that those MPPs don’t hear the same concerns (about highway safety) from their constituents.”
Bourgouin’s bill would amend the Highway Traffic Act to say “no person in charge of a vehicle shall pass or attempt to pass another vehicle going in the same direction on a highway if doing so would require the crossing of double solid yellow lines painted on the roadway.”
Violation of the law would be punishable by a $400 fine and three licence demerit points.
“The first time I tabled it, the minister said it was a great bill… But when it was time to vote on it, they voted it down,” Bourgouin told Newswatch.
The government said police “have other resources” to deal with the hazards presented by passing in double-line zones, he recalled.
He said the government argued police “could charge for careless driving, they could charge under the law for other things, and they felt that (a new law) was not needed — even though the bill came from speaking to police officers.”
Highway safety has been a focus for Vaugeois, who has represented Thunder Bay–Superior North since 2022.
She said highway safety in the region has seen some progress, notably on four-laning between Nipigon and Thunder Bay.
“I have so much respect for the engineers and workers who have done that,” she said. “So that’s something to celebrate.”
However, she added, “we still have almost no staffing of the inspection stations” and there are still “long stretches of highway with no passing lanes, no places for trucks to pull over or for anybody to pull over.”
“Northerners know these roads better than anyone, and we’ve been clear for years: this government’s inaction is putting lives at risk,” Nickelbelt MPP France Gelinas said in an NDP news release.
“It’s time to act. Passing Chad’s Law would show that this government finally takes northern safety seriously.”
Chad’s Law is named after a resident of Bourgouin’s riding who narrowly survived a collision.
Bourgouin said the government side of the legislative assembly should “leave the partisan games behind and support this law that will actually protect Ontarian lives.”
