The 2025 Federal Budget laid down the groundwork for levelling the playing field for tax and labour noncompliance in trucking, but more still needs to be done by the provinces and the federal government to restore law and order to the sector.
“Yesterday’s federal budget was a big step forward. The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) will work with CRA and ESDC to see its execution and enforcement,” said OTA Chair Mark Bylsma. “OTA will also continue to be heavily involved in working with the federal transport committee looking into Driver Inc and the Government of Ontario to focus on other relevant issues like truck safety, insurance fraud and forced labour.”
The Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities (TRAN) is nearing the end of its review of Driver Inc. While issues like T4A enforcement and misclassification took centre stage, other issues like truck safety, insurance fraud and forced labour have also exposed problems while tabling potential solutions
OTA commends the three co-chairs of the TRAN committee – Peter Schieke (Liberal) Dan Albas (Conservative) and Xavier Barsalou-Duval (Bloc) for their excellent work to expose the critical safety and labour issues impacting our industry.
“We strongly encourage them to continue this work and make recommendations for the federal and provincial government on these matters,” said Bylsma. “T4As and misclassification are an important part of restoring law and order to our industry, but the needed measures cannot stop there.”
Through its CTA membership, OTA have supported the Alliance’s call for a national database of trucking fleets as well as the precise safety measures needed to immediately improve key national safety code standards currently under review by the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) and the Council of Deputy Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety to be adopted in 2026. At home, OTA is calling on the province to overhaul its safety and trucking immigration systems to recognize the gross abuses that are occurring in the sector.
“We have asked the province to end the safety rating category of satisfactory unaudited, open truck inspection stations 24/7, shift tractor-trailer licensing to a vehicle configuration-based structure and suspend the ONIP for trucking until the issues with it are fixed,” said OTA Senior VP Policy Geoff Wood. “Yes, the province has made some significant moves to help our sector, like the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act 2025, Operation Deterrence and the installation of X-Ray machines at scales, but this is not enough. We need a truck safety policy revolution, not just evolution.”
The province and the courts have begun recognizing the rampant fraud and manipulation within Ontario’s licensing and training regimes. Last week, owners of a truck training school were sentenced to house arrest for fraud. The judge described their crimes as “an elaborate scheme.”
As Ontario continues to address significant challenges and irregularities within its commercial truck driver training and licensing regime. Directed by its board, OTA remains entrenched to work with government to accelerate the process to end lawlessness in the trucking industry.
OTA will be launching an awareness campaign on truck safety, which encourages carriers, drivers and the public to demand provincial politicians expedite meaningful action.
