Plan includes 24/7 enforcement, and stronger carrier oversight
Building on joint momentum to strengthen Canada’s supply chain, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) has proposed a proactive collaboration with the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety to upscale proven provincial safety initiatives into unified, pan-Canadian standards.
In a letter to the Council, the CTA commended Canada’s transportation ministers for their ongoing leadership in dismantling internal trade barriers and tackling the “Driver Inc.” labour misclassification model. To accelerate this progress, the CTA is inviting the Council, Deputy Ministers, and the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) to establish a structured, government-industry review process that turns successful regional pilots into turn-key national frameworks.
The CTA Board of Directors highlighted two immediate opportunities to advance this shared safety agenda:
As British Columbia and the industry collaborate on a regulatory framework for forward-facing cameras in heavy commercial vehicles, the CTA is urging the Council to use B.C.’s initiative as a pilot. By proactively gathering pan-Canadian insights from government and industry stakeholders, Canada can establish a national standard that prevents regulatory friction and internal trade barriers before they take root.
“B.C.’s work on forward-facing cameras is an excellent foundation, but safety regulations shouldn’t stop at provincial borders,” said Dave Earle, President and CEO of the BC Trucking Association (BCTA). “A 12-month joint working group will allow us to take the great work happening on the ground in British Columbia and seamlessly upscale it into a turnkey national standard. This proactive approach ensures our drivers face clear, unified rules everywhere they operate across the country.”
To protect compliant carriers and road users, the CTA advocates a shift from reactive oversight to continuous, proactive enforcement, including working toward 24/7 operations at truck inspection stations to prevent non-compliant operators from bypassing closed scales. Furthermore, to support the ministers’ excellent work on an integrated national truck safety database, the CTA calls for a plan to eliminate the concerns with oversight blind spots linked to the “Satisfactory Unaudited” safety rating category – ensuring the database is powered by verified operational data, given that over 80 percent of Canadian fleets have never undergone an on-site safety check.
To rapidly execute these priorities, the CTA and its provincial association partners are proposing the creation of a joint government-industry working group with a focused 12-month mandate to design the operational frameworks needed to resolve the “Satisfactory Unaudited” data gap and seamlessly align B.C.’s forward-facing camera rollout nationwide.
“Our message to the Council of Ministers is clear: we must sustain our momentum and build directly on the significant progress we have already achieved together,” said Scott Tilley, the newly appointed Chair of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA). “By collaborating to transition toward 24/7 roadside enforcement and resolving the ‘Satisfactory Unaudited’ concerns, we protect compliant carriers, eliminate the unfair playing field exploited by non-compliant operators, and fundamentally make Canada’s highways safer for everyone.”
