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The five candidates running to become the next mayor of Caledon, Ont., are vowing to crack down on illegal trucking activities in that town.
Unofficial truck yards have been taking over vacant farmland across Caledon over the last decade, using the space for parking, storage and resting spots for trucks and drivers but without proper zoning, licensing and approval from the municipality.
The issue has drawn the ire of residents who say they’ve been faced with noise, congestion on roads, safety hazards and land-use violations caused by the illegal trucking depots. It’s a problem many say they want their next municipal government to solve.
“[Residents] have lost any sort of enjoyment of their home and there’s also a lack of safety on the roads,” said Amanda Corbett of the Caledon Community Road Safety Advocacy Group.
“Somebody that may have an illegal truck yard right over their backyard fence [has] 24/7 light coming into their windows. There’s also a lot of noise like backup beepers, banging.”
More enforcement necessary, trucking industry says
The depots are also causing concern for the trucking industry overall, said Marco Beghetto of the Ontario Trucking Association, which represents 450 carriers across the province.
“Caledon is the epicentre of illegal truck activity. It’s extremely frustrating because you have compliant businesses that have to abide by all the laws and standards, so those things obviously have a cost associated with them,” he said.
“But it’s impossible to compete with companies that sidestep all those regulations, and it is absolutely eroding the competitive playing field in the trucking industry.”
Marco Beghetto is vice-president of communications at Ontario Trucking Association. The group represents approximately 450 members, including private carriers, for-hire carriers, intermodal companies, suppliers and other parts of the sector. (Submitted by Marco Beghetto)
Beghetto, who is also a part-time Caledon resident, believes the depots are a symptom of a systemic issue of non-compliance and lawlessness in the industry. He believes all levels of government need to ramp up enforcement.
“What you have is illegal zoning, illegal storage, you have storage of illegal cargo, environmental laws being broken. And frankly, in a lot of cases, you have organized crime-related elements masking themselves as trucking companies,” he said.
“Eighty per cent of trucking companies operating in this province have never received any sort of safety inspection at any level,” he said, referencing a May 2026 report by the association. “Nobody knows who they are.”
In May, a report released by Ontario’s auditor general concluded the province was not effectively monitoring commercial truck driver training, inspection and licensing regimes.
He wants to see more inspection sites operating on a 24-hour basis and support workers to keep companies from avoiding the site checks.
As for Caledon’s next mayor, Beghetto wants whoever wins to work with community stakeholders and advocate to the province for more legislative authority.
What the candidates are promising 
Caledon mayoral candidates Alan Hart, top left, Christina Early, top right. Bottom from left to right: Jagdeep Sacha, Manjit Bhondhi Saini and Mario Russo. (Hart4Caledon website, Early4Caledon/Facebook, Jadeep4Caledon.com, manjit4caledon.ca, mariorusso.ca.)
The candidates say they will not allow the status quo.
“If you’re going to open up an illegal truck yard, we’ve got to find a way to stick a … barrier in front of it. You can’t just keep on putting trucks in a field and expecting us to turn a blind eye,” said mayoral candidate and current regional Coun. Christina Early.
However, Early and Coun. Mario Russo note that provincial legislation restricts how far the municipality can go to punish such truck yard operators.
Russo said the town doesn’t currently have the authority to barricade the properties unless a court rules a truck yard illegal, which can take up to three years.
The province has said it is working on legislation to give municipalities more control on how they fine truck yards.
“The people that are doing it illegally, we need to come down on them and say ‘You can’t keep doing this and we’re going to make your job, or your life challenging with fines, with continued enforcement so that you leave our town,” Russo said.
Mayoral hopeful Alan Hart says he plans to take as much action as the law allows, including through fines and impounding vehicles. He also suggests blocking off entry to the truck yards.
Candidate Jagdeep Sacha says he would allocate a designated area for truckers to park their vehicles in.
Manjit Bhondhi Saini, another candidate, says there should be an industrial park of which a portion could be used for trucking yards.