CTA News Release – CTA Hopeful One Canadian Economy Bill Will Help Rebuild, Boost Supply Chain

The world’s largest trading relationship remains in turmoil as President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) to raise tariffs to 35 percent on non-CUSMA qualifying goods.

Most Canada-US trade is moved back and forth across the border by truck. 

As cited by the President through the EO, and based on comments from a senior U.S. official, the primary reason for this escalation is related to various forms of illegal smuggling across the Canada-US Border:

The EO stated: “Canada’s lack of cooperation stems from the flood of fentanyl and other illicit drugs across our northern border — including its failure to devote satisfactory resources to arrest, seize, detain, or otherwise intercept drug trafficking organizations, other drug or human traffickers, criminals at large, and illicit drugs.”

Canadian Trucking Alliance CEO and President Stephen Laskowski said the “CTA has been sounding the alarm with Canadian officials for months that illegal drug smuggling and human trafficking in cross border trucking, including forced labour of foreign drivers, is a problem in the Canadian trucking industry due to lack of provincial and federal oversight of carrier safety and compliance.”

“We have continued to outline this issue and solutions to federal and provincial officials, and we hope Prime Minister Carney and provincial leaders will focus the necessary enforcement efforts on our sector as soon as possible,” he added. “It’s what our country and industry needs and what Washington has repeatedly asked for. The time is now to secure the border and bring real enforcement to the growing, criminal element in our sector that strives to shun the law and undermine the compliant, lawful aspect of our industry.”

Some provinces have already taken significant steps to increase oversight and enforcement, which have yielded good results. The Province of Ontario, at the behest of CTA and the Ontario Trucking Association, continues enforcement through Operation Deterrence. The Ministry of Transport and police forces have focused efforts to inspect trucks travelling to and from the US border. Data obtained for the first months of MTO operations (Jan-Apr) indicate just over 48,000 inspections were completed. About 85% percent of these were focused on detecting and deterring illegal activity by checking vehicles’ cargo and cargo securement requirements. Over 22,500 separate types of non-compliance issues were documented with 4,200 charges have been issued.

Nationally, the CTA’s plan involves federal and provincial agencies cooperating and conducting joint enforcement at provincial truck inspection stations; focused immigration and labour audits on carriers where there is indication of  forced labour – including a majority of US visa applicant truck drivers reportedly receiving wages one-third of industry standards; and taking decisive action to change immigration programs so they only permit participation by compliant trucking fleets that have been screened and audited  by provincial and federal officials.

Source: https://ontruck.org/cta-trucking-industry-can-help-end-the-trade-war-as-u-s-demands-for-increased-border-security-continue/