The committee was studying the changing landscape of truck drivers in Canada. Appearing were Stephen Laskowski, Angela Splinter, Johanne Couture, Shelley Walker, Jonathan Blackham, Geoffrey Wood, Steve Bourgeois, Ken Adams, and Mark Seymour.
Stephen Laskowski of the Canadian Trucking Alliance described the Driver Inc. model as a well-organized scam involving misclassification of employees as independent contractors, leading to tax evasion, labour law violations, and safety risks. He said the crisis has grown unchecked since 2018 due to lack of political will, and called for ending the T4A moratorium, enforcing personal services business rules, coordinating a national misclassification blitz, deploying federal agencies to inspection stations, and implementing new border security measures.
Angela Splinter of Trucking Human Resources Canada said Driver Inc. undermines employee protections, makes recruitment harder, and creates an uneven competitive landscape that disadvantages compliant carriers. She warned that the model is spreading into other occupations and that without action, compliant carriers may feel forced to adopt the same practices.
Johanne Couture of the Women's Trucking Federation of Canada said Driver Inc. erodes road safety by removing employer oversight of hours of service, maintenance, and training. She said it pressures compliant carriers out of business and discourages new entrants, and called for consistent enforcement across jurisdictions and a national trucking credential.
Shelley Walker of the Women's Trucking Federation of Canada said Driver Inc. creates conditions for labour trafficking, with vulnerable newcomers trapped by withheld passports and threats. She said it makes careers unsustainable for women and other underrepresented groups, and called for a national trucking credential to restore integrity and protect workers.
Jonathan Blackham of the Canadian Trucking Alliance explained that the CRA found trucking is the top user of the personal services business model, with an average of $17,000 in tax evasion per driver. He said CRA studies confirmed that drivers were told by employers to incorporate as a condition of employment, and that the T4A moratorium has enabled this abuse.
Geoffrey Wood of the Canadian Trucking Alliance said Transport Canada governs hours of service and dangerous goods but delegates safety enforcement to provinces. He said there is a role for Transport Canada to develop a coordinated data system so all jurisdictions can be measured consistently, and that this process needs to be accelerated.
Steve Bourgeois, speaking as an individual, said ghost drivers are increasingly common, circumventing safety and insurance standards. He reported a 35% increase in fatal accidents in Quebec between 2023 and 2024, and called for increased on-the-ground screening, clear penalties for illegal hiring, a national insurance database, and stronger immigration and worker status controls.
Ken Adams of the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario said Driver Inc. begins in the classroom, with carrier-owned schools fast-tracking students through bare-bones programs. He cited document fraud, bribery, and labour trafficking, and called for ownership transparency, unannounced provincial audits, CRA tracing of tuition flows, and a national trucking credential with a labour trafficking module.
Mark Seymour of Kriska Transportation Group said his company has had to shrink by 25% because it cannot compete with Driver Inc. operators. He said over half of job applicants only want contractor status, and that the 10 paid sick days are a significant cost for compliant firms. He called for enforcement of existing regulations rather than new ones, and said the honour system has been abused.
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