Transport Committee on Oct. 28th, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 13 of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, September 18, 2025, the committee is resuming its study of the changing landscape of truck drivers in Canada.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the Standing Orders.

I would like to make a few comments for the benefit of our witnesses and members. First, please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mic, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking. For those on Zoom, at the bottom of your screen, you can select the appropriate channel for interpretation—floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel in front of you. I remind you that all comments should be addressed through the chair.

For members in the room, if you wish to speak, please raise your hand. For members on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard.

Colleagues, I would like to now welcome our witnesses.

From the Association du camionnage du Québec, we have Marc Cadieux, chief executive officer, and Josyanne Pierrat, director of compliance and legal affairs.

Welcome to you both.

From Insurance Bureau of Canada, we have Maximilien Roy, interim vice-president, strategy; and Cecilia Omole, manager, commercial policy. From the Professional Truck Training Alliance of Canada, we have Kim Richardson, senior adviser, joining us by video conference.

Thank you for taking the time to appear before us today. We will now start with opening remarks.

Mr. Cadieux, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Marc Cadieux, Chief Executive Officer, Association du camionnage du Québec]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would also like to thank all of the committee members for allowing us to address you regarding the impact of the Driver Inc. scheme on the trucking industry.

In addition to our comments today, we would like to inform you at the outset that the Association du camionnage du Québec stands fully behind the speech and comments made by its federation, the Canadian Trucking Alliance, on the issue that concerns us: the much discussed Driver Inc. scheme. I also want to recognize the president of the Alliance, Stephen Laskowski, who is with us today. The Association du camionnage du Québec further supports the solutions set out in the brief from the Fraternité des constables du contrôle routier du Québec.

Allow me to introduce our association. For 75 years, the Association du camionnage du Québec, or ACQ, has brought together many stakeholders in the trucking industry. It represents more than 500 members, including carriers, both public and private, and service providers, whose combined operations account for almost 80% of commercial transport in Quebec. Its annual turnover comes to $2.5 billion.

The ACQ has been making representations on this subject to the Quebec government since June 26, 2012, to be precise. The Driver Inc. scheme is not merely a simple economic problem. It is a devastating phenomenon that jeopardizes the industry as a whole, endangers the safety of all roadway users, and is creating a genuine social crisis.

Every year, this system diverts billions of dollars from our economy, money that should, in the ordinary course, be used to sustain our social network, our hospitals, our schools and our public infrastructure, the very pillars of our national values.

Because of the breadth and complexity of this scheme, it acts like a sprawling web, and there is no single or instantaneous solution to fix the problem. One thing is essential, however: the firm and clear intention on the part of the government to restore balance and put an end to these frauds. Without that political will, no lasting change would be possible.

A real jump start is urgently needed; the authorities need to be given more enforcement powers and tools they can use to act much faster. At present, a single government agency may take as long as three years to process a case before anyone is convicted and fines are actually collected.

That unacceptably long time allows the fraudulent companies to keep operating, keep profiting from the system and perfect their scheme at the expense of the ones that obey the rules. At the same time, the number of Driver Inc. drivers is rising on all our roadways, as are the accidents they cause, often because of a lack of driver training, failure to obey the rules of highway safety and poor vehicle maintenance.

How many more deaths will have to happen before firm, exemplary punitive action is taken by all levels of government?

During this time, our legitimate companies, which are often intergenerational, find themselves having to reduce their fleets, lay people off and struggle just to survive, all of this solely to protect the jobs that are left and preserve a minimum degree of fairness in a profoundly unbalanced market.

Our brief sets out solutions and measures that we consider to be priorities. I will quote some for you. First, lifting the moratorium on the mandatory issuance of T4As in the trucking industry, to provide for better traceability between payments and tax returns. Second, imposing new obligations on carriers, transportation intermediaries and forwarders, to reduce the risks associated with tax and social security fraud and with modern slavery in the haulage industry. That would enhance transparency and accountability on the part of all actors in the supply chain.

In conclusion, Mr. Chair, you will rarely see an industry mobilize country-wide, asking for regulation and oversight and begging the government to take back the money it is owed.

We are therefore calling on your leadership, on all of you, to initiate concerted, determined action on a scale to match the economic, social and human issues raised by this situation.

We thank the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities for offering us this opportunity to submit our comments on this scheme. We are of course available to discuss the items listed in our brief with you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Cadieux. You used five minutes on the dot. Congratulations.

[Marc Cadieux]

I practised.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

There you are.

Next, we have Mr. Roy.

The floor is yours. You have five minutes, please.

[Maximilien Roy, Interim Vice President, Strategy, Insurance Bureau of Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Members of the committee and fellow representatives, thank you for the invitation to be here today to provide an insurance perspective on issues of concern in the commercial trucking sector.

We represent the Insurance Bureau of Canada, or IBC, Canada's national association for private property and casualty insurers. We work with governments, regulators and stakeholders to ensure that the industry is well positioned to protect Canadians from the risks of today and tomorrow.

On a personal note, I live in Longueuil and have two young children. The tragedy that occurred on August 27 that cost the lives of Tanya Lalonde, who was 34, and her son Elliot, who was five, hit me particularly hard, because it happened a few minutes from my home. It could have been my wife and kids.

I offer the family of Ms. Lalonde my condolences.

The commercial trucking sector is vital to Canada's economy, moving goods across a vast supply chain network. The majority of truck drivers are hard-working professionals deeply aware of the importance of safety both for themselves and for others.

However, the insurance market for commercial trucking has seen a significant increase in the size and the severity of insurance claims resulting from accidents on roadways. For consecutive years, insurers paid out more in claims and expenses than they earned in premiums.

Today, premiums continue to be under pressure, creating affordability challenges for the trucking sector. The key factors contributing to insurance affordability challenges are the new and inexperienced drivers on the road, fraud in the marketplace, an increase in the size of liability claims due in part to nuclear verdicts in the U.S., and a high turnover of experienced drivers.

In 2024, IBC released a report with data showing that drivers who are inadequately trained are more likely to be involved in collisions. We developed a suite of national public policy recommendations to address challenges and worked diligently with partners in the sector to advocate for changes to government-led truck driver education. We continue to advocate for changes in every jurisdiction.

Trucking must be treated as a profession. High-quality training is a key defence against rising claims costs and a way to improve road safety while supporting the economic viability of the sector.

The trucking sector is facing a critical labour shortage. The demand for new drivers will only increase as experienced drivers retire in the coming years. In 2023, 48% of commercial truck drivers in Canada were over the age of 50.

As new drivers enter the profession, proper training is essential. The level of training and driving experience have an impact on insurance pricing. Unfortunately, current entry-level training programs are insufficient. Most jurisdictions offer only minimum standards, which do not adequately prepare drivers for the complexities of driving on Canada's roads.

We have an opportunity in front of us to ensure the next generation of truck drivers is among the most skilled in the world. To promote safer roads, affordable insurance and a sustainable trucking industry, IBC urges government to act in a few key areas.

The first is to improve training. Provincial and territorial governments should enhance entry-level training programs for truck drivers to provide a standardized curriculum for schools and professional instructors, with subsidies to help drivers receive this training at an affordable price. As well, governments should update national commercial vehicle safety standards and mandate harmonized comprehensive entry-level training requirements across jurisdictions, and also mandate continuing education after entry-level training is completed. Additional training will help better prepare drivers for Canada’s unique terrain.

The second is to tackle fraud by creating a centralized national database to verify insurance information and identify fraudulent actors. This will help improve underwriting accuracy.

The third is to mandate that truck operators provide comprehensive employment history documentation to support drivers seeking new opportunities. The importance of a safe and prosperous commercial trucking industry today is critical to the Canadian economy, as 20% of Canada's total GDP moves across provincial and territorial borders each year. Governments must prioritize road safety and fair competition.

IBC calls on the federal government to collaborate with provinces and territories to develop cross-jurisdictional solutions that help deter fraud, improve training and protect all road users.

Thank you, sir.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Roy.

Next, we'll go online to Mr. Kim Richardson.

The floor is yours. You have five minutes, please.

[Kim Richardson, Senior Advisor, Professional Truck Training Alliance of Canada]

First of all, thank you to the standing committee for allowing the Professional Truck Training Alliance of Canada to present its remarks today.

I would like to start by talking about what the Professional Truck Training Alliance of Canada is. PTTAC is the unified voice of commercial truck training in Canada, with a mandate to standardize and support programs offered in each province and territory. The PTTAC movement began in early 2022 when a group of like-minded professionals and stakeholders connected to share a vision: to see truck driver training be accessible, consistent and a valued profession in Canada.

PTTAC is the only national group in Canada that represents commercial truck driver training businesses, and it will drive progress and education training in road safety through expertise and influence. The Professional Truck Training Alliance of Canada's key objectives are to make commercial truck driver training a recognized Red Seal trade in Canada; to create national, approved truck training instructor programs; to remove barriers and bring accessibility to [Technical difficulty—Editor] Transportation Specialists Inc. has been a business since 1989, a company that I founded. To date, we've graduated, through our three different facilities, over 17,000 commercial drivers.

I'm here to tell you, on behalf of PTTAC and our industry, that the HR pipeline is a problem. It's spreading across every sector of our industry, and it's not just drivers. We have improper oversight, improper compliance and improper regulations. The federal government needs to play more of a leadership role to correct this.

Transport Canada has dumped responsibilities onto the provinces, and we encourage you to change this. As a proud member of the Ontario Trucking Association for 35 years and as a past chairman of its allied trades division, I have been lobbying since 2018 against the misclassified drivers model initiative, better known as Driver Inc.

The driver industry is the number one contributor to tax evasion, and it's growing every day. The misclassified model encourages drivers to use trucks as cash registers, with road safety not being a priority.

The Professional Truck Training Alliance of Canada is also bringing solutions to the table. Through our partnership with our schools and our insurance and carrier members, we have created education on the misclassified driver model that every school in every province can share with its entry-level drivers. Tens of thousands of entry-level drivers in Canada will receive this information so that they are better informed.

The next step is to develop online education that can be used for entry-level drivers and existing drivers about the misclassified driver model. The vision for this online education is that it can be used by the entire industry: schools, carriers, insurers, associations and government.

What else can we do to stop the infection of poorly educated drivers? We can step up with regulation and enforcement. The industry needs to create some sort of self-policing mechanism that harmonizes and works with government on enforcement and regulation.

Make no mistake—there is not a shortage of commercial drivers. There is a shortage of qualified drivers, and that number is increasing every day in Canada.

A national instructor accreditation course is being worked on by PTTAC. We have partnered with technology experts. Our technology partner, Bluedrop, is helping to develop this education and testing so that the nation can be harmonized. This should be ready by Q1 of 2026.

We need to start at the foundational roots of the industry. That starts with education. The recipe is a good school, a good carrier and a good insurer. The results are safer roads and long-time, sustainable careers. As feds, you need to be strategic with your investments in education nationally. Enabling students to access the Canada student financial assistance program is necessary and vital to the success of our industry.

I will leave you with this: Many in our industry are in support, in principle, of a Red Seal for the professional driver. PTTAC and its school members are major supporters and drivers of the Red Seal component. Carriers for hire and private carriers, insurers, associations and existing drivers are in support of a Red Seal, and so are some provinces.

It is time to legitimize the profession. It is time to clean up our mess, and it's time for the federal government to step up to the plate. Let's put an end to the misclassified driver model. This is the first step in doing so.

Thank you for your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much for your opening remarks.

We'll jump right into it.

I will now give the floor to Mr. Groleau for six minutes.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you Mr. Chair, and thanks to our guests for being here.

My first question is for Mr. Cadieux.

You are the chief executive officer of the Association du camionnage du Québec. Obviously, highway safety is very important to me. In fact, I am very happy that you are here to answer our questions.

I have discussed the Driver Inc. scheme with a number of transport company owners; some of their companies have been in operation for 90 years. They told me that this crisis was the worst they had ever experienced.

Can you tell me about that?

[Marc Cadieux]

Mr. Chair, I have made submissions to the various orders of government.

I went first to the provincial government. The first minister of finance I spoke to about the situation was Raymond Bachand. That gives you an idea of the time frame. Next, I approached the federal level on several occasions, to raise awareness about the competition aspect and the extremely unfair competition. Our industry is used to competition and is very adapted to it, but it is not adapted to the competition we are seeing today.

Competition today is not remotely comparable to a commercial competition system.

Competing companies bid on the same contracts as us, but they do not have the same criteria for compensation or training for their drivers. We are working in circumstances where the pay difference can be as high as 25% or 30%. The big schemes that make up these companies don't give their employees vacation pay, don't pay for health insurance—and here, I am talking about Quebec, but my example applies to every province—and don't pay into the Quebec Pension Plan, pay nothing to the Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité au travail, pay for group insurance, and do not contribute to a group pension plan. That being said, I am not claiming that the entire industry is doing this, but this is still a space where the pay differential is 25% to 30%.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Let's go back to road safety. You and your carriers have certainly seen the CBC's program Marketplace. One of the things it revealed is that people have obtained driver's licences in under 48 hours.

What are your thoughts about that?

[Marc Cadieux]

Yes, I saw that program, and I have also seen the J.E reporting that was reported 13 times in Le Journal de Montréal. Last week, again, I saw that some schemes had falsified the number of years of experience shown on foreign driver's licences. That enabled people to get class 1 licences, which I will talk about a little later. That raises a lot of questions. On top of that is the lack of oversight by all governments, both provincial and federal.

Yes, you can see this litany of accidents. In fact, our colleague has cited a very sad list. There are obviously gaps when it comes to safety and lack of training. Even if they have received training, it is often bogus training.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Your brief talks about carriers and owners, the ones that award the contracts. The drivers hired by those companies are dangerous on the road.

In your opinion, do they not have a moral duty to society?

[Marc Cadieux]

Not only do they have a moral duty, they also have a social duty. This is very important and I'm glad you raised this point.

The fact that there are so many drivers like this on the road, and so many fleets made up of them, means that someone is giving them work, and a high volume of it. We often talk about carriers that have huge volumes. I think the accidents in the last six months in Quebec are proof of this.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Sometimes you pick up a rock, you look at what is under it and you want to put it back where it came from.

I will not name all the owners, but I am going to take one as an example. I would like you to confirm this information. Canada Post is a Crown corporation funded by taxpayers. Has it abandoned traditional carriers in favour of Driver Inc.?

[Marc Cadieux]

Mr. Chair, you will understand that I will have to answer with some discretion.

However, I can say that this name has been brought to my attention. A carrier who is a long-standing member where I come from lost a major contract on the south shore for a bid he had submitted. He absolutely could not understand why he had not been able to engage in fair competition, because the differences between bids were much too high. It has to be said that the only way they could compete with the others is to engage in unfair bidding.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Mr. Cadieux, it is unacceptable for a Crown corporation to encourage this scheme when it is aware of the problem. It is very disappointing, and it is a cause for concern.

[Marc Cadieux]

This issue has been brought to my attention, but I do not have the tools that are needed for proving it.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Groleau.

Mr. Lauzon, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to all the witnesses for being here today.

Mr. Roy, you said clearly in your presentation that drivers who were less well-trained were more likely to be involved in accidents. That kind of bothered me.

When you say that less well-trained drivers are more likely to have accidents, are you basing this on figures? Are the figures in your reports?

In other words, do you have figures for us to make it clearer?

[Maximilien Roy]

I will let my colleague Ms. Omole talk to you about that.

[Cecilia Omole, Manager, Commercial Policy, Insurance Bureau of Canada]

Thank you for the question.

Yes, we have seen a lot of statistics that would support that assertion. For instance, we've seen, between 2015 and 2023 specifically, increases in claim counts within Ontario in the amount of 83%. In Alberta it's 88%, and for the Atlantic region collectively it's 86%. When we talk specifically about claims costs, the costs of these accidents, we've also seen increases there. From 2015 to 2023, it's the same situation: Ontario has an increase of 89%. For Alberta, it's 166%, and for the Atlantic region collectively, it's 82%.

Unfortunately, we don't have data for the other jurisdictions, but from what we can see there are systemic issues in Canada.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

You have given us figures, but how did you determine that less well-trained drivers were responsible for the accidents?

Are you able to look into their profile and ascertain how they received their training, the length of training, the language it was given in, and the province where it was given? We know that when an accident happens, drivers may be caught outside their home province.

Before including them in your statistical reports, how did you get access to the data about the drivers, given that there is interprovincial trade?

Can you explain that to the committee?