Transport Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 19 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motions adopted by the committee on Thursday, September 18, 2025, and on Thursday, December 11, 2025, the committee is resuming its study of the changing landscape for truckers in Canada.

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

To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules for witnesses and members.

First, please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. Those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mic, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking.

Those on Zoom, at the bottom of your screen, you can select the appropriate channel for interpretation: floor, English or French. Those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel. I will remind you that all comments should be addressed through the chair.

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

I'd now like to welcome our witnesses. Appearing before us today, from the Alberta Motor Transport Association, we have Mr. Robert Harper, president. From the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, we have Ms. Linda McAusland, president and chief executive officer.

Thank you both for taking the time to appear before us today.

We'll begin with opening remarks.

For that, I'll turn the floor over to you, Mr. Harper. You have five minutes, sir.

[Robert Harper, President, Alberta Motor Transport Association]

Thank you, Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to contribute to your study.

Why are we here?

The Alberta Motor Transport Association provides health, safety and other services to over 18,000 members because of our mission to advocate, educate and innovate on behalf of the Alberta transportation industry. AMTA is here because Driver Inc. isn't just a tax or misclassification issue. It's about safety, worker exploitation and economic competitiveness.

Driver Inc. has flourished because of lax oversight of the scheme. Many have unethically and illegally benefited by underpricing competitors by 25% to 35% and using threats and intimidation to silence competitors and employees from exposing the scam.

The Driver Inc. business model relies on lower costs, primarily by underpaying their employees. These deceitful tactics spread to other areas of operations, creating a toxic culture of cutting corners, eroding safety through weakened maintenance, poor or fraudulent documentation and reduced training. The scheme effectively eliminates the conditions designed to trigger a worker's right to refuse unsafe work, ultimately impacting public safety.

The AMTA supports the current and sustained CRA and ESDC measures to ensure compliance by all companies irrespective of size or industry. The AMTA is grateful for the measures taken by the federal government requiring T4As and for the added resources to investigate misclassification.

The federal measures are aligned with provincial initiatives to conduct and increase coordinated on-road enforcement inspections and to shut down fraudulent and unsafe operators, driving schools and their instructors. The measures taken are greatly welcomed and need to be sustained and coordinated federally and provincially across the country to continue to reverse Driver Inc.

We also support further steps taken through CCMTA to deliver one Canada-wide NSC carrier profile, which will help to identify and eliminate chameleon carriers commonly used by those who employ Driver Inc. to deceive enforcement. We also believe that a nationally created and funded database is required to achieve optimal impacts to improve safety and compliant operations.

Additional fuel for the Driver Inc. model comes from the temporary foreign worker program. These workers, hired under the guise of legitimate employment, have been coerced or enticed into Driver Inc. as subcontractors. These individuals paid tens of thousands of dollars to better their lives through employment in Canada only to find that their future livelihood hinges on silence, compliance and abuse. This resembles modern slavery.

While employee misclassification is known as an income tax and cost avoidance scheme, the committee should also be aware that GST tax fraud is an important component and accomplished through carriers' interline freight GST paid to Driver Inc. subcontractors. This transaction is not an eligible GST credit, but the carrier claims the non-eligible ITCs, meaning taxpayer dollars are being used to finance this illegal scheme.

In the last decade, increases in payroll costs and regulations have contributed to making the Driver Inc. model more lucrative. Current net-zero regulations are adding unsustainable costs for many legitimate carriers to adopt and meet current mandates. Mass adoption is uneconomic as it requires fleets to source units costing at least twice those of conventional vehicles and to then remodify for operational use for technologies that lack supporting infrastructure.

Canada must reform the current greenhouse gas emissions model, the GEM model, to reflect the limited availability of compliant options and to reflect operational usage specifically allowing practical lower-emission technologies, because thousands of workers who operate commercial heavy-duty vehicles, especially in our resource-based sectors, will have future employment and economic opportunities lost.

In closing, eliminating Driver Inc. isn't just a tax or labour issue. It's about correcting Driver Inc.'s abuses of Canadian taxes, our safety culture and workers' rights, while protecting competition for legitimate carriers. Cost pressures that have driven the Driver Inc. scheme are significant across the Canadian economy. By eliminating enforcement gaps and modernizing regulations, we can protect drivers and enhance public safety while supporting the growth of a strong and competitive transportation industry.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Harper.

We'll go to Ms. McAusland next.

Ms. McAusland, the floor is yours. You have five minutes for your opening remarks.

[Linda McAusland, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to present today.

I'm happy to give you an overview of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators. We are a non-profit organization whose membership comprises provincial, territorial and federal government senior leaders who administer, regulate and oversee motor vehicle transportation and highway safety in Canada. For over 85 years we have provided members with a forum to collaborate and respond to road safety priorities by promoting efficiencies for drivers and vehicles. Our board comprises representatives from Transport Canada, provincial and territorial transportation departments, public safety and service agencies and public insurance corporations and is accountable to the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety.

In the late eighties, with the deregulation of transportation, there was a need for cross-Canada harmonization and reciprocity in the management of commercial vehicles. In 1987, the federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for transportation and highway safety signed an MOU to develop and implement a national safety code to encourage road safety, promote efficiency in the motor carrier industry and achieve consistent road safety standards across Canada. CCMTA is the custodian of the NSC.

The NSC is a set of 16 standards, including determining driver fitness in Canada, hours of service for commercial drivers, safety ratings, facility audits and entry-level training for class 1 commercial drivers. Designed as a comprehensive code of minimum performance standards for the safe operation of passenger and commercial vehicles, the NSC provides guidance for legislative, regulatory and administrative action and specifically focuses on responsibility for the operation of commercial vehicles on the road, including trucks, buses, tractors and trailers.

All provinces and territories choose how they will use the NSC to inform their commercial vehicle regulatory and legislative framework, but they are not obligated to do so. The CCMTA does not have any regulatory or legislative authority and we do not provide any oversight.

With respect to commercial vehicle safety in Canada, our most recent priorities include working with jurisdictions to complete a review of NSC standard 7, carrier and driver profiles; NSC standard 14, safety rating; and NSC standard 15, facility audit. These standards are the framework for commercial vehicle safety oversight. The review will identify amendments to the national safety code standards, which will be brought forward for approval to the Council of Ministers.

We have established a national committee of provincial and territorial auditors and investigators to identify problematic carriers and to share information and best practices to effectively and efficiently act on problematic carriers. We are working with jurisdictions to ensure they have more robust and timely national carrier data by enhancing and optimizing our carrier data exchange system.

We have established a new working group to identify opportunities to coordinate national efforts to address the misclassification of commercial vehicle drivers, known as Driver Inc., through making connections with relevant agencies and public education within the mandate of CCMTA.

As well, we are developing guidelines for NSC standard 16, commercial truck driver entry level training class 1, to support jurisdictions in working towards a more consistent application of this standard.

We have worked very closely with our industry partners on these initiatives, and for the most part they are generally supportive of our work. We are committed to working with our members to improve commercial motor vehicle activities in Canada to have the safest and most efficient movement of people and goods by road in the world.

I thank you for your attention and look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. McAusland.

We'll begin our line of questioning today with Mr. Albas.

Mr. Albas, the floor is yours. You have six minutes, sir.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank both of our witnesses for the work they do every day and for coming to answer some of our questions today.

I'm going to start with Mr. Harper.

Mr. Harper, thank you to your province for giving the Conservatives such a wonderful welcome at our convention. I'm sure you had everything to do with that chinook, so I'm just going to attribute it to you.

Minister Dreeshen, the minister of transportation for Alberta, over the past six months has closed a number of driving schools and a number of trucking companies for a variety of reasons.

Do you look at that as being a good thing?

[Robert Harper]

Absolutely. The provinces, as I've noted, have been looking at doing NSC audits and checking whether people are compliant with regulations, and they have shut down a number of trucking companies as well as driving schools that are not operating as per standards. This is positive for the industry, and I say it has to be coordinated both provincially and federally.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

When it comes to coordinating provincially and federally, many of these operators can simply transfer the assets into a different company and apply for a new safety fitness certificate. It might even be within Alberta. It might be just going across to my province of British Columbia.

Is that a concern for you?

[Robert Harper]

It is. That's the reference to chameleon carriers where basically you just change your colours when you've moved from one jurisdiction or have reincorporated a company.

Yes, the NSC standards need to be improved. We need better data sharing in a database between provinces to keep track of those companies and directors so that they are not reincorporating. There have been significant accidents when a company was shut down and then incorporated in another province almost immediately.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Do you believe that, when a new company applies for a safety fitness certificate from their province, there should be some requirement to disclose who their directors are and who the beneficial owners are to determine whether they are chameleon carriers?

[Robert Harper]

Yes.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Okay.

Could you please explain the GST issue? I know the CTA has raised the issue of taxation being subverted in the Driver Inc. model, but I hadn't heard about the GST before.

[Robert Harper]

When most freight is subcontracted, the original contractor is the only one who pays freight. In the Driver Inc. model, what they've been doing is paying the Driver Inc. subcontractor GST. We've seen pay stubs where essentially it's just paid as a revenue source. It's not a GST-eligible ITC, but the carrier claims the ITC knowing that Driver Inc. will never remit it as GST, or they'll include it in other income. This means they're getting 100% credit on one side and, at most, marginal tax, but at worst, it's zero. In Alberta, that's 5%. In Ontario, we're talking HST, say 13%.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

I hope our analysts are taking note of that.

When it comes to driving and experience, we had a gentleman from Ontario who talked to us last week. He said, “Therefore, we have harvested drivers who are simply not skilled. They're not safe, and they're not aware of it. They're getting themselves into trouble with easy, minor situations that not only an advanced driver but a medium-trained driver should know.”

It sounds to me that national safety code 16, for example, which is recommended but is not an actual law, seems to be an issue.

It's also been raised with me that, in terms of the transportation of dangerous goods right now, if you have a licence to drive, you can drive a heavy load. You can even transport dangerous goods without some sort of formal recognition of what is required.

Do you believe there needs to be more standardization for when someone can transport something, let's say, transportation of dangerous goods? Should a company specialize in that? Should there be something that separates them as more experienced drivers who can handle those loads and who should be recognized maybe outside of the regular licensing process?

[Robert Harper]

I think any type of certification on top of a licence is valuable, so we support having those graduated steps in a licensing process.

The key point about Driver Inc. is that they tend to flout training and, because of subcontracting, they're pushing subcontractors to do work that they wouldn't otherwise be doing.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Alberta has been well known for overhauling their mandatory entry-level training program. As much as I'd like for the rest of the provinces to emulate that, do you believe that national safety code 16 should have some force of law? Maybe there should be a condition that is attached to the safety fitness certificate that they are going to allow only a certain amount of training. Right now it's province by province with a different patchwork....

[Robert Harper]

Again, we support the provinces having jurisdiction over this but, yes, we would support that it becomes more standardized.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Like Alberta?

[Robert Harper]

Yes.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Albas.

Thank you, Mr. Harper.

Next we'll go to Mr. Greaves.

Mr. Greaves, the floor is yours. You have six minutes, sir.

[Will Greaves, Liberal, Victoria, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning to our witnesses. Thank you for being here.

I'll start with Mr. Harper as well.

I appreciate your being here, sir.

We've heard a lot of witness testimony in this committee from witnesses from central Canada in particular. A lot of the witnesses focused on the Ontario context and actions that the Ontario government might take to try to address the Driver Inc. scam.

In that vein, I'm wondering if you could speak more to what specific actions you feel the Government of Alberta might be able to take to complement the federal government's crackdowns on misclassification.

[Robert Harper]

I'm not here to speak about what the Alberta government should do, but the Alberta government has been taking part in some of the inspection blitzes that were done at scales, which involved intergovernmental departmental surveys to make sure that we identify Driver Inc.

We believed that this was happening and when these blitzes started and the Alberta government was doing the inspections at the scale, they were sort of surprised. The comment was that when they see these drivers at the scales, the indication was that they are probably Driver Inc. They were surprised that there was the high rate of carriers—in the 30% range—that we had suggested it was. That's helped to validate what we said.

Looking at the driving schools, looking at licensing and looking at NSC audits are really the levers the province has to identify Driver Inc. and then to go after the federal government for not collecting enough taxes on companies that aren't remitting income tax.

[Will Greaves, Liberal, Victoria, BC]

Can you tell us what you think would be the way to send the strongest signal about increasing enforcement? We've heard a great deal from other witnesses about how there just isn't a lot of on-the-ground enforcement. There's a culture of impunity in many instances that seems to have grown up within parts of the trucking sector.

What kinds of actions, in your view, could be taken most immediately that would signal a seriousness in addressing this problem within the sector and that would be received as such by those working in the sector?

[Robert Harper]

There are audits that Canada Border Services and ESDC should do. We had instances where people on temporary foreign worker permits were terminated by an employer. They came in on their permit and a week later, they're working at a Driver Inc. company and bragging about it through a Facebook chat when they should have absolutely not been working in the company. I sent some documentation to CBSA, and they said, “Please don't send us this information.”

Also, look at GST audits. Go through these companies to see what GST they paid. What companies are entitled to interline freight? Then go after who was paid the GST and find out whether they remitted it or declared it as income. There has to be a lot of enforcement of tax and audits on these issues.

Quite frankly, we brought this up last year, and some of the members of my board and the Canadian Trucking Alliance seemed to be the first ones audited—not the people who we were concerned about and should be audited. They seemed to focus on the people who are more likely to be compliant than the people we've indicated are targets for enforcement.