Following today’s appearance by Canada Post officials before the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) is calling on Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and
Procurement, to ensure the Crown corporation truly sets the gold standard for procurement and labour rights in the Canadian trucking industry, as it claims.
During the hearing, which focused on the prevalence of the “Driver Inc.” model and forced labour within federal supply chains, Canada Post was asked to address criticism of its current vetting processes for third-party freight contractors.
Although Canada Post senior executives repeatedly asserted during the hearing that Driver Inc. and non-compliance do not exist within its supply chain, evidence presented by committee members cast doubt on those claims. Nonetheless, under questioning Canada Post’s CEO committed to taking closer examination of its contractor base and signalled publicly the Crown corporation will not do businesses with fleets engaged with these exploitative and illegal practices.
“Canada Post is one of the largest purchasers of transportation services in this country. With that scale comes massive responsibility,” says Stephen Laskowski of the Canadian Trucking Alliance. “The CEO of Canada Post said it is taking the lead in ensuring every contractor they hire complies with tax laws, safety regulations, and basic human rights. However, to date, these assurances do not match Canada Post’s reputation among our membership and other carriers.”
“We have asked successive ministers responsible for procurement to address this matter, as well as the CEO of Canada Post himself. So far, there has been essentially no acknowledgement about the industry’s concerns.”
“In the meantime, the Carney government seems to have taken the issue of Driver Inc far more serious than previous governments, and we hope this very positive trend continues and motivates Canada Post to engage with industry on these critical issues.”
The CTA’s position remains firm: to protect the integrity of the industry, Canada Post’s procurement must prioritize three critical areas:
- Ending driver misclassification by eliminating the illegal practice of treating employees as independent contractors to evade CPP, EI, tax obligations, and protections under the Labour Code.
- Zero tolerance for forced labour by implementing rigorous audits to ensure no contractor within the Canada Post network is involved in labour trafficking or exploitation.
- Safety-first procurement by moving away from low-cost, “bottom-line” bidding models that incentivize carriers to bypass Hours of Service (HOS) regulations and proper maintenance standards.
“We listened closely to the testimony provided today,” said Laskowski. “While we welcome the commitment to integrity we heard today from Canada Post, the real test will be what happens next with their real-world practices and engagement on this issue.”
CTA will be asking the Minister of Procurement to convene a meeting of industry and Canada Post to ensure the vetting process announced in today’s meeting by senior executives is producing the results required to ensure verified safe and labour compliant fleets can bid on Canada Post business.
The CTA looks forward to the Committee’s final report and recommendations to ensure federal agencies are not inadvertently funding the underground economy.
