Ottawa's 'Wild West' towing industry must change, officer says

A veteran police officer is calling for licensing of tow truck driversand greater oversight of the industry in Ottawafollowing another complaint about exorbitant storage fees.

Sgt. Chris Montague, a 21-year veteran of the Ottawa Police Service, runs the city's vehicle impound lot.

He'swatched the towing industry closely throughouthis careerand said he gets daily calls from people requesting police assistance over thefees charged by private towing contractors.

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Montague said it's time to bring law and order to what he calls towing's "Wild West."

His call comes after one woman was handed a bill of nearly$3,000 for storage fees she saidshe shouldn't have to pay.

'My car was stolen'

Judy McDougalltried for days without success to reach Ottawa United Towing, the tow truck company that removed her Volvo SUV from the scene of a crash on Feb. 7, she said.

McDougall'svehicle had beenstruck by another car pulling out of a gas station.

Ottawa United Towing arrivedatthe scene even before police, she said, and offeredto take her SUVto a body shop the next morning even though Ottawa bylaws state tow trucks can't park within 100 metres of a crash. (On Ontario highways, tow truck operators can't solicit their services within 200 metres of a crash.)

McDougall agreed, but by the morning of Feb. 8,her Volvo hadn't shown up at the garage.And earlythe following week, she sensed there wasa problem.

For more than a week, McDougall said, she tried contacting Ottawa United Towing ownerJason Ishrakibyphone and email. She reached out toher city councilor,Tim Tierney,and to her MPP, Nathalie Des Rosiers, for help buther vehicle remainedinthe company'syard.

What they do ... should be treated as criminal.- Judy McDougall

The retired mechanical engineer and her husband kept a spreadsheet tracking their 26 attempts to reach the company.

"In my mind, at that point, my car was stolen. It was gone," McDougall said.

She triedto get police involved, urging them to investigate it asastolen vehicle but police told her it wasn't a criminal matter, she said.

When the towing companyansweredher calls more than a week after the crash, she was informed she faced a bill of $2,900 for storage in a yard, she said.

The car was delivered to an autobodyshop on Feb.22.

"What they do ... should be treated as criminal," McDougall said.

Not the only incident

McDougall isn't alone.

During theSeptember2018 tornadoes in Ottawa and Gatineau, Ontario-basedOnroute Towing &Recovery towed Richard Dumont's SUVwithout his knowledge or permission.

The vehicle was takento a field 35 kilometresfrom hishome, and his insurance company was billed $1,800 to release it.

In March2017, an Ottawa couple was billed more than $4,000 to have their car towed from the scene of a collision, only to see itheld "hostage"until the matter wasresolved.

CBC News called Ottawa United Towingto interview ownerIshraki about McDougall'sexperience,but received no response.

When CBC News showed up in person,Ishrakiblamed the delay on McDougall's insurance company. Hethen ordered CBCoff the property, and another personthreatenedto smash areporter's camera.

'A free-for-all'

Montague saidthere's little protection for Ottawa driversfrom predatory and exorbitant storage fees.

And he believes policies enacted in the Greater Toronto Area including licensing, fixed towing ratesand other strict controls have pushed some operators east into the looser, more lucrative Ottawa market, he said.

"It's the wild west out there ...it's just a free-for-all," he said.

Ottawa does not requiretowtrucks to be licensed, but more than a dozen other municipalities in Ontario do.

Montague is nowcalling for tow operator licensing and what he callsa"tow rotation"a schedule of eligible operatorsset out by police.

'It's ridiculous'

Insurance Bureau of Canada spokespersonPete Karageorgos blames aregulatory vacuum at the municipal leveland a lack of enforcement of provincial towing laws.

While the industry doesn't track the effect of inflated storage fees on overall insurance prices, a 2012 study suggested insurance fraud of all kinds added about $236 to each policy in Ontario, he said.

"Insurance companies have the added costs of trying to fight what seem to be in some cases illegitimate and illegalchargesthrough the courts," Karageorgossaid.

"It's ridiculous, bordering on criminal."