Over the past 19 years the people of Oshawa and The Region of Durham have enjoyed and benefited from the services of multiple Professional Designated Driving Service Providers. We have made it both convenient and affordable for people to drink and get home responsibly with their vehicles. We have significantly reduced the number of impaired drivers traveling our roadways which has resulted in fewer traffic accidents, better use of our emergency services and fewer tax dollars being needed.

Durham Region is very unique. There is no other community in Canada that has as many Professional Designated Driving Service Providers as ours. We were one of the first communities to welcome our services and because of our tremendous value demand for these services has grown significantly. So popular are these services that there are now many other communities across Canada that are beginning to see similar operations opening up and servicing their communities. We have been very instrumental in the development of the Designated Driver Industry that exists in Canada today.

This coming September however the City of Oshawa is planning to be the first municipality in Canada to introduce a new Designated Driver By-Law that would require the Designated Drivers and Service Brokers who plan to operate in their city to be both licensed and regulated.

See CORP-15-74 Regulation of Designated Drivers

http://app.oshawa.ca/agendas/corporate_services/2015/06-19/corp-15-74_regulation_of_dd_industry_follow-up_report.pdf

While we welcome regulation to some extent we fear that the proposed requirements are too extreme and are going to dramatically impact this industry! The proposed By-Law, if passed will dramatically change the way in which the industry operates and the proposed licensing fee requirement for a new driver, which is going to be $247.00, will make obtaining new drivers virtually impossible! If there are no drivers then there will be no Designated Driver Industry! The newly proposed requirements will undoubtedly result in delayed response times, longer service times, severe driver shortages and increased rates. Increased rates will also mean that the service may no longer be affordable to some people and that many of them will likely take the risk of driving themselves home.

While we’ve tried to relay our concerns to the committee responsible for this By-Law our message has clearly not gotten through to them. If you value having our services in your community and are concerned about losing them, then show your support by signing our petition and help us get the attention of your municipal government!