Mr. Speaker, this year's bonehead bureaucrat award goes to federal transport employee Bertrand Boily.
It is a well known fact that we in western Canada love our pickup trucks. Mike Nickerson was visiting Texas when he saw every cowboy's dream, a stretch limousine pickup truck. Realizing a market exists for such a truck in Calgary, he mortgaged his farm and risked his life savings to purchase the $200,000 vehicle.
The truck passed Alberta safety regulations with flying colours and business was booming. Even Tom Selleck hired the longhorn limo.
Alas, enter bonehead Boily who called Nickerson stupid for thinking a stretch pickup would be allowed in Canada. Then without even looking at the vehicle, he declared it unsafe and seized it.
According to Boily, if Mr. Nickerson wants his truck declared street legal, all he has to do is crash it into a wall and set it on fire to see if it is safe. And he calls Nickerson stupid.
Maybe Boily's boss, the Minister of Transport, should volunteer to be the crash test dummy. Maybe then Mr. Nickerson might agree to the test.