Transport Committee on Oct. 21st, 2025

[Shelley Spence]

When it comes to training the drivers, certainly with our audit of the class G licensing, we found that there was inadequate surveillance—I guess that's what you'd want to call it—around making sure that when people have a certificate, it's not just a case of “sign on the dotted line and here's your licence”.

[Iqwinder Gaheer, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

In your opening testimony, you spoke about certain recommendations that were not implemented or were not being followed. Do you know what they are?

[Shelley Spence]

In our five-year follow-up, we really look at it at a very summary level, so I can't get into that level of detail. However, I can say that they have done some of the recommendations. They've figured out how many roadside inspections they need to do, and they're working on the staff training plan—that sort of thing.

As for the 14%, I had a feeling that someone would ask me that, but we did not publicly disclose which ones those were.

[Iqwinder Gaheer, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Thank you.

That's all for now, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Gaheer.

Mr. Barsalou‑Duval, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Mitton, two weeks ago, I took part in a press conference with many members of the Quebec Trucking Association. One of the recommendations that came out of it was to establish a Canada-wide registry of offences so that traffic officers have access to offences committed in other provinces and so can more easily intercept offenders.

Do you think that would be helpful?

[Blaine Mitton]

They're not up to code. I would say that this goes back to whether they've been trained and whether they are Driver Inc. people or not. It's isolated.

There's a big difference between what I call the legitimate trucking companies and the non-legitimate companies. The legitimate companies spend a lot of time on their equipment, safety and driver responsibility, and there's a lot of training. There's a lot of ownership, let's put it that way. When you talk to those companies and their drivers, there's ownership and responsibility for doing a good job. That's not quite the same on the other side of that coin, with the Driver Inc. companies.

Does that answer your question?

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

I'm not sure you understood my question, but I liked your answer anyway.

Mr. Kotak, do you have any comments on that?

[Ritesh Kotak]

I want to make sure that I understood the question correctly. Is it about the control mechanisms?

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

I'm going to repeat it, because I think there may have been a problem with the interpretation.

It has been proposed that trucking-related tickets handed out by traffic officers or police officers in any province be recorded in a registry that would be accessible in all provinces. Currently, traffic officers in Quebec, for example, have access only to offences committed in Quebec. They can't see the ones that were committed in Ontario or New Brunswick, for example. This makes it harder for them to do their job and intercept trucks that are non-compliant.

Do you think a shared registry like that would be helpful?

[Ritesh Kotak]

The short answer is yes. I think that having access to relevant data and getting that data when you need that data pushed to you, and the benefits that come from the integration of systems.... Overall, yes, there is already sharing in many industries.

Again, the short answer is yes.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

Next, we'll go to Mr. Lewis.

Mr. Lewis, the floor is yours. You have five minutes, sir.

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses this afternoon for their testimony. I appreciate their time.

All of my questions, Mr. Chair, will go through you to Mr. Mitton.

I'm going to start off by reading a quote, Mr. Mitton, that I believe is yours. It takes me to my first question.

We're not asking for a handout—we're demanding a seat at the table. Canada's economy runs on wheels. If we lose access to our most critical market, we lose more than business—we lose influence. We've earned our place in North America's supply chain. Now we need to defend it. Let's not wait for a solution. Let's be the voice that drives one.

I believe that was you on cross-border trucking. I really like that quote.

My riding of Essex is right next to the busiest international border crossing in North America. I believe your firm was part of the company involved in the merger of IFS Trucking with RIMS Transport, which happens to be in my riding.

[Blaine Mitton]

They are very good companies, sir.

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

That's great to know.

Having the busiest international border crossing in North America next to my riding, I wonder if you can speak to how Driver Inc. has affected cross-border trucking.

[Blaine Mitton]

In generalities, cross-border trucking needs good drivers in the U.S. It doesn't take very much to cause an accident. I was thinking about it today. If you drive 500 miles, there are going to be at least two or three occurrences when you need skilled people driving that truck, and you have 80,000 pounds to worry about. If you're in the U.S., you'd better have somebody who knows where they're going and who has been trained and coached by a team driver so they know what they're doing. I don't think that is happening on what I call the other side of society. If you're a Canadian driver in the U.S., you really don't want to have an accident. You get on to nuclear verdicts and all kinds of things.

As some of the people here suggested the other day, all of a sudden the company names get changed, so it's another challenge for everybody.

It's a reputation for Canada.

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Absolutely. Thank you, sir.

One of my constituents wrote to me that he's been in the business over 20 years, and he had to get out of the business because of a lack of training for new drivers over the past decade. He said, “I'm scared to be on the road any longer.” Another constituent, a fleet manager, wrote to me and said, “I'm a second-generation business owner. I'm not only concerned for my family's future but all the families within Windsor-Essex that we and other law-abiding carriers in our community employ. These are professional truck drivers who are scared to be on the road and are scared for their families' safety.”

I'm wondering if you could speak to how the Driver Inc. model puts compliant truck-driving businesses at a severe disadvantage and, in turn, puts Canadians at risk on the roads, including my constituents, who are professional truck drivers scared to be on the road.

Specifically, what are the numbers, and how are compliant truck-driving businesses at a disadvantage?

[Blaine Mitton]

Compliant truck companies are at a disadvantage because of cost. They pay wages, pay benefits and remit income taxes to government. The difference between a Driver Inc. company and what I call a legitimate company is about $45,000—I think you'll find in my report that I outlined how I arrived at the numbers—which is a big number. It's a huge number.

In the meantime, the legitimate guys spend more time training, because they're responsible, versus the other people, who bring in a driver, put them in a truck and put them through a minimum amount of training, as we heard from the HR people the other day. If you have a minimal amount of training and a big rig, you're dangerous; you can't help but be dangerous. It takes a lot of emphasis to drive a big rig.

I came from a farm, and I appreciate what's happening. What I did back then was another story, but you understand the differences between people who are trained and people who are untrained, and then they're out on the road and they have to respond, and there's a big difference.

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Thank you so much, Mr. Mitton.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lewis.

Auditor General Spence, Mr. Kotak and Mr. Mitton, I want to thank you on behalf of all members of the committee, first, for your patience as we did go a little bit over due to audio-visual issues, and also for your testimony on this very important study. I wish you safe travels home.

Colleagues, before I adjourn, as discussed previously, we do have a budget before us for this study. Do I have unanimous consent to adopt the budget that has been circulated to members?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

It is so adopted.

Thank you very much, colleagues. Have a wonderful evening.

Go, Blue Jays!

This meeting is adjourned.