Transport Committee on March 23rd, 2026

[Doug Ettinger]

We have investigated all of that.

I understand that the article is out there from La Presse, but from everything I can see in the team and all of our auditors, there is no credence to that. We have not engaged on the Driver Inc. model in Canada, period, and have no intention of it.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

So, you had $1 billion in losses last year, and you're telling me you didn't cut corners using these Driver Inc. truckers. Even though we have evidence, you're telling me otherwise.

[Doug Ettinger]

That's right. We have not seen the evidence, and we're always looking for it. We're always looking for things that we can improve on to make sure these things don't continue.

To me, there's no place for Driver Inc. in the Canadian landscape, period. It's wrong. Employees have to be treated with respect, with the right training, screening and safety every single time.

If there is evidence—no one has provided that information to us so far—as soon as we get it, we will investigate immediately. As I said earlier, we will terminate any carriers that have serious violations of safety regulations.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you.

I have two questions for you from a very courageous woman who came here to testify. Her name is Nathalie Poulin, and she's the mother of Alexandra Poulin, who sadly died in a serious accident involving some Driver Inc. truckers. She asked me to ask you this question in memory of her daughter Alexandra, and for the safety of everyone who uses the roads.

As president and CEO of Canada Post, are you prepared to commit today to changing the bidding criteria so that Canada Post no longer gives priority to the lowest bidder, and so that strict public audits ensure that every transportation company working for the Crown corporation, either directly or through subcontractors, meets the highest employment and training standards to ensure safety on our roads?

[Doug Ettinger]

We're already doing it. We do not support contracts at the lowest price. We are not cutting corners, clearly. In fact, if they don't meet the qualifications, the stringent technical requirements or the supplier code of conduct, they're disqualified from the next stage of engagement on procurement, which gets into price and other things.

As I said earlier, we will pay more for good quality and safety. We want a balanced, value-added approach. This is so important in Canada. There is no place for this in the Canadian economy, period.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you.

What is your process? You tell me that you don't hire these companies directly. However, the companies you hire do hire other companies. That's the problem. What tools do you have to combat this?

[Alexandre Brisson, Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation]

There are several ways to do that. What we control is the process. The way we conduct tenders is extremely structured. After that, it's important for us to check our approach by asking ourselves whether we can demonstrate, in practice, that we have a very watertight process for doing business with new companies. We subject all truckers who come onto Canada Post property to extremely detailed audits. Whether it's a supplier directly contracted by Canada Post or a subcontractor, the process is exactly the same, and the audit is just as thorough. We observe the truckers' activities on-site to see if they meet our safety standards.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you.

[Alexandre Brisson]

We watch how they interact with our people. We check to see if they're wearing the jacket and if the zipper is zipped.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you.

[Alexandre Brisson]

We even go out into the streets to observe them and see if they obey traffic signals, like red lights.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Brisson. Unfortunately, the time is up.

[Alexandre Brisson]

That's okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Next we'll go to Ms. Nguyen.

Ms. Nguyen, the floor is yours. You have five minutes, please.

[Chi Nguyen, Liberal, Spadina—Harbourfront, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much to the witnesses for joining us today.

I'd like to start with some questions for Canada Post.

We have seen this article, and know about the list of companies, those 25 that you mentioned. You have taken some actions. You talked about your auditing process. I'd like to understand a little bit more about the steps you took as senior leadership once you heard and saw the news. What happened with these 25? What are your steps here?

How do we make sure, with the third party auditing that you have in place, that you are confident in this?

[Doug Ettinger]

Thank you. That's another excellent question.

When we saw the article in La Presse, we followed up with those companies. None of them are contractors of ours today. We have reviewed the list.

Again, there are no incidents or violations of Driver Inc. within our ecosystem in Canada Post.

Again, our process is very robust and very aggressive in terms of audits, as Alex was just describing. We are watching them ourselves and with our own third party experts to make sure that they're living up to the standards that we all require around safety.

[Chi Nguyen, Liberal, Spadina—Harbourfront, ON]

One of the challenges we keep hearing about throughout this study is that the role of education really falls to the provinces. How are you making sure that is part of your process as you onboard and hire teams to do this work?

[Doug Ettinger]

I'll ask Alex to follow up on that.

[Alexandre Brisson]

I'm going to say even more broadly, as Mr. Ettinger was saying, health and safety at Canada Post is paramount. Not only do we train our employees, but we train our suppliers on our practices and on what's right to do on Canada Post's premises. Even in the procurement process, we have actual steps.

When we say we look at quality first and then we look at price, quality first means you have training programs. We ask, “How is it you do that? How is it you maintain qualification for your drivers?”

From the onset when we acquire new suppliers to handle our business to the day-to-day work where we audit and test the drivers and look at them to see what they do, we try to control all of these aspects because, again, security is our number one priority.

Now, we can always be better, and that's why we remain in contact with Transport Canada and big players in the industry. Some of our audit processes were developed this way to incorporate the best of the transportation industry today and keep improving on what we do.

From start to finish, we're applying a very structured approach, and it's based on training and qualification all the way through.

[Chi Nguyen, Liberal, Spadina—Harbourfront, ON]

If we look at the implications for the companies that you terminated, were there fines? Were there other consequences? I'm not sure if you're able to speak to that, but I'm curious.

[Alexandre Brisson]

I won't speak to fines, but one part of collectively improving here is to provide feedback. That's what our audit process is doing. There are different infractions. If your vest is not zipped all the way up, that's one infraction. If you show up and your equipment is not safe, that's really something else. There's a full range of activities and consequences.

We see it as part of our job to consistently provide that feedback so suppliers can improve. Those that don't show the right priorities from a health and safety standpoint are terminated.

[Chi Nguyen, Liberal, Spadina—Harbourfront, ON]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Verleysen, thank you very much for joining us today. I really appreciated your bravery in sharing your story with us. I'm so sorry for the loss of your sister.

You had recommendations around the adoption of more technologies, etc. If we were to look at creating a mandatory national data-sharing system, what kinds of elements would you look to see in that, such as insurance policies? What would give you some signals that we're doing our job in terms of the federal leadership that you'd like to see?

[Peter Verleysen]

One signal would be if you were to have a national data bank of infractions, accidents and that kind of thing, so that a new company taking on those risks is more aware, first of all. Also, maybe it would start to weed...the process of self-accountability there.

Again, our whole system has been a pass-the-buck system, and nobody has taken responsibility on any level.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much.

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. Ettinger, I can hardly believe my ears when I hear you speak today. It's as if there were no self-reflection and everything were perfect on your end.

Basically, we summoned you here today because we want you to clean up your act, and you're telling us you don't need to, because everything is clean. However, I have a ruling here from the Supreme Court of British Columbia regarding one of the carriers that were named. That probably doesn't count either.

The documents from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario, commonly known as the WSIB—for you, that doesn't count. There's no problem on your end. Even though we're putting the information right under your nose, you continue to deny that there's a problem.

Mr. Ettinger, you've been in your position since March 2019, which is around the same time the Driver Inc. phenomenon began to spread everywhere. Has any minister ever questioned you about this issue? If so, which minister and how many times?