The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) is applauding the joint enforcement action of Ontario\u2019s Ministry of Transportation (MTO), Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and Ontario\u2019s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) for raising awareness among truck drivers and identifying potential carriers who are robbing workers of their rights and the public of tax revenue needed for social programs and infrastructure like heath care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These provincial and federal agencies came together in March at the Whitby scale to enforce vehicle and driver safety, while also ensuring drivers and their companies were obeying labour laws, which are being ignored by a growing majority of trucking companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These actions at the scales complement federal efforts made by the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA)<\/a> to support the development of the federal misclassification team now active at provincial scales. These efforts also support <\/a> the new Information Sharing Agreement<\/a> established by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and ESDC in early March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the Federal Ministers of National Revenue and Labour note in their March 7 announcement the ISA aims to \u201cfacilitate inspections and enforcement in the federally regulated road transportation sector\u2026this arrangement allows the CRA to receive relevant information from the Labour Program to support CRA\u2019s existing compliance activities<\/a> in this sector.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n OTA president Stephen Laskowski said the announcement was timely, following a Canadian Trucking Alliance survey showing how over a third of truck drivers applying for jobs demand to work illegally<\/a> and how the BC Employment Standards Tribunal recently shined a light<\/a> on how the Canadian trucking industry is home to one of the largest underground economies and international human trafficking rings in Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Laskowski is hopeful the increased efforts should serve as a warning to companies operating in the underground economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you consider the establishment of the ESDC misclassification team, their increased audit activities, interventions at roadside, increased coordination with provincial authorities \u2013 along with the new CRA-ESDC information sharing agreement \u2013the stakes for companies and drivers participating in Driver inc. and associated illegal activity are as high as ever,\u201d he said. \u201cGovernments are taking an interest in the underground economy, road safety issues; and are concerned about tax evasion, worker abuse, and crime. They are also sharing information and working together like never before. If companies don\u2019t abandon this model now, after many years of education, they won\u2019t be able to say they didn\u2019t know about the consequences.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n