Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
It is a great pleasure to be here, accompanied by my new colleagues from Transport Canada and my former colleagues from the Labour Program and Employment and Social Development Canada, or ESDC.
I would like to thank the committee for inviting me here today.
First, I would like to say how privileged I feel to have recently been appointed Minister of Transport. It is a great honour, and I am very excited about working with you on this committee and, more broadly, working together to build our country and strengthen our economy.
I would also like to take a moment to highlight the remarkable contributions of the Canadian trucking industry. Across Canada, more than 1.2 million commercial vehicles transport hundreds of billions of dollars in goods each year. Every time we see well-stocked shelves, whether it’s food, clothing or household items, we have a truck driver to thank, and that role will only grow as we aim to double our non-US exports. By the end of the decade, we will need our truckers even more to transport our wood, steel, aluminum and natural resources to new markets.
As Minister of Transport, I recognize that this industry is changing rapidly and that these changes bring new challenges. One of the issues posing a challenge is the “Driver Inc.” model or scheme, which raises important questions about labour practices and taxation. This is an important issue that our government takes very seriously, and has done so for a long time.
We all share the same goal: a safe, fair and competitive trucking industry. In this regard, our government has just announced some excellent news that will come from the 2025 budget. Incidentally, I believe this was one of the Bloc Québécois’ requests for the budget. The budget provides $77 million over four years, with permanent funding of $19.2 million per year, to enable the Canada Revenue Agency to strengthen compliance in the industry. These investments will help identify non-compliant companies, support drivers affected by misclassification and ensure that every company contributes fairly to the programs that Canadians depend on.
The budget also creates legislative amendments to improve information sharing between the Canada Revenue Agency and ESDC, thereby strengthening enforcement of the Canada Labour Code. In other words, this is a concrete initiative to protect workers, ensure a level playing field and strengthen confidence across the sector.
At Transport Canada, we are working closely with ESDC to support these efforts and promote responsible business practices across the country. On one specific point, there can be no compromise. Regardless of the business model, safety must always come first; it is the absolute priority. Safety is a shared responsibility between the federal, provincial and territorial governments, and with the industry itself, of course. The National Safety Code for Motor Carriers is one of the essential pillars of this collaboration, containing 16 standards governing the safe operation of commercial vehicles and carriers.
Take electronic logging, for example. It has simplified record keeping, strengthened compliance with the Commercial Vehicle Driver Hours of Service Regulations and helped prevent fatigue. These are major advances for road safety, but we know there is still much work to be done.
More recently, the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, or CCMTA, was mandated to analyze carrier safety certificates to more effectively identify those with problematic histories. The results of this work, combined with our joint efforts, will guide future improvements to the national framework and help facilitate domestic trade.
I would also like to highlight an important initiative organized by Transport Canada last July. The “trucking hackathon” brought together representatives from all levels of government and industry to identify concrete solutions to eliminate trade barriers that affect the free movement of goods between provinces.
This hackathon sparked rich exchanges and innovative ideas to improve both domestic trade and road safety. There's still a lot of work to be done, but I am confident that, together, we are moving in the right direction.
Before concluding, I want to emphasize one key idea. Collaboration is our greatest strength. The trucking industry is essential not only to our economy but also to our communities. It connects people, goods and opportunities across this very large country. By working hand in hand—government and industry—we can ensure that Canada's transportation system remains safe, efficient and sustainable for generations to come. This is the message that I had when I met with the trucking industry. We'll work together to strengthen the sector, to protect good Canadian jobs and to build our economy.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.