Why can’t anyone close hundreds of illegal truck depots?

In today’s The Big Story podcast, the rural area around Toronto’s major highways is some of the most fertile land you’ll find in Canada, and it’s zoned that way. It’s agricultural land, with plenty of space for peaceful rural homestead — or, as the city grows, townhouses and small communities.

Oh, and trucks. Thousands of them, rolling up and down those rural roads all day and night, and parking at one of literally hundreds of illegal truck depots that are operating throughout the region. 

David Rider is a senior political reporter for The Toronto Star. “The fact is these businesses, the reason they’re willing to pay millions of dollars for 10 acres of property that looks like in the middle of nowhere, is they’re making that money back very quickly,” said Rider.

It’s been happening for years. And there’s nothing, at least so far, anyone has been able to do to stop them.

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