On April 1st, 2025 — and no, this is not an April Fool’s joke — Alberta’s very own Maple MAGA minister Devin Dreeshen announced that the province has officially scrapped MELT (Mandatory Entry Level Training) for Class 1 drivers and replaced it with the new Class 1 Learning Pathway.
Alberta’s move comes without coordination from the rest of Canada, and in doing so, we've now added yet another inter-jurisdictional trade barrier. This, at a time when the federal government is actively trying to eliminate those barriers to better position Canada against rising U.S. protectionism and tariff pressure. It's like watching a team trying to score on their own net.
Let’s rewind a bit. MELT was rushed into place following the Humboldt Broncos tragedy — a horrific crash in which driver inexperience and training were contributing factors. What should have happened after that was a nationwide collaboration. All provinces and territories should have come together to create a standardized training curriculum for Class 1 drivers. What actually happened? Each province came up with their own version of MELT. The result: inconsistent standards and patchwork training across Canada. Sound familiar?
Now Alberta is charting its own course yet again with this new Learning Pathway — which, in theory, follows a Red Seal-style apprenticeship model. Industry has been asking for something like this for years. Great idea, right? In principle, yes. But in practice, it’s a problem.
Why? Because Alberta's Learning Pathway is not a real Red Seal trade.
We absolutely need a Red Seal certification for commercial drivers — but that needs to be federally recognized. A real Red Seal trade would give us access to federal funds for curriculum development, instructor qualifications, and standardized testing. It would also open doors for new drivers to access EI benefits, training grants, and WCB placements.
Better yet, it would legitimize the trade. Driving Class 1 would be a viable post-secondary option at community colleges and something we could actually present to high school students as a career path — a far cry from today’s patchwork model. Journeyperson status carries weight, distinction, and higher pay. When’s the last time you saw a Red Seal plumber working for minimum wage?
Canada’s had a driver shortage for 30 years. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, most drivers came from the family farm. Driving a truck was practically an apprenticeship in itself. But as family farms disappeared and trucking remained a tough, low-paying, high-burnout job, younger generations just weren’t interested.
So what did we do? Rather than fixing the job, we brought in foreign labour.
While immigration helped the numbers, it opened a whole new can of worms. Drivers came from countries with vastly different training standards, road conditions, and equipment. Language requirements? CLB 4 — about the equivalent of a Canadian Grade 5 reading level. Enough to follow safety instructions and fill out a logbook, but that’s about it. When the TFW (Temporary Foreign Worker) program expanded during COVID, truck drivers were added — many without language testing — and abuses followed: exploitation, slave wages, no benefits, and a highway safety crisis.
Meanwhile, Ontario’s corrupt driving school scandals allowed unqualified student visa holders to become truckers. That loophole’s closed now, but those drivers? Still on the road.
Here’s the bottom line: Shady trucking companies don’t want a Red Seal trade. Why? Because it would mean better pay, benefits, and protections. And that would end the low-wage loopholes that keep freight rates artificially low. Legitimate companies can’t compete — and the cycle grinds on.
So What Does This New Learning Pathway Actually Look Like?
Let’s break it down:
At first glance, it sounds more comprehensive than MELT — 133 hours compared to MELT’s 113. And it includes training in cargo securement, safety management, and loss prevention. Great. But let’s not forget MELT graduates still needed extra employer training to actually be road-ready — training in cargo securement, Hours of Service, weights and dimensions, daily inspections, etc. Why wasn’t that part of MELT in the first place?
So is the Learning Pathway better than MELT? Technically, yes. But is it good enough? Still debatable.
Also: Who exactly is “industry”? According to the Alberta government, curriculum input came from “industry stakeholders” and the insurance sector. Notably absent? New drivers and the companies that actually hire them. I’m not sure why we’re trusting the insurance lobby to shape driver education — but here we are.
And let’s talk about that “restricted” Class 1. It’s giving big graduated licence energy — which we tried before and abandoned because people simply didn’t bother to finish the process. History, meet repetition.
Final Thoughts: Another Self-Inflicted Wound
Instead of using the existing CCMTA (Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators) framework to build a national program, Alberta went rogue — again.
In an era where we should be removing trade barriers between provinces and working together on a national apprenticeship model, Alberta just made it harder for Class 1 drivers trained in-province to work across borders. Good job, team. We’ve paved the road to nowhere.
My favorite MAGA hat-wearing minister has issued a call to action to the federal transport minister, urging investment in interprovincial mega-infrastructure projects to keep Canada productive amid an impending tariff war with the United States. Given that his ministry is Transportation and Economic Corridors, it’s worth examining what’s actually being actioned. Historically, the MAGA minister’s focus has been squarely on the economy, often neglecting how transportation itself contributes to economic strength.
Another Bureaucratic Layer Instead of Action
The MAGA minister proposes creating an Economic Corridor Agency to identify and maintain economic corridors across provincial boundaries, with consultations involving Indigenous groups and industry. However, Transport Canada already has mechanisms in place: the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA), and the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA). These organizations have spent decades attempting to align regulations and reduce interprovincial trade barriers. The issue isn’t a lack of agencies—it’s the unwillingness of jurisdictions to uniformly adopt existing regulations.
Rather than creating another layer of bureaucracy, the government should focus on implementing industry-backed solutions. The CCMTA has a strategic plan for 2024-2027 and the CFTA’s Internal Trade Action Plan (ITAP) for 2024-2027 already outlines necessary steps—there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
The Case of the Disappearing Rest Areas
The MAGA minister calls for increased federal funding for trade-enabling infrastructure such as roads, rail, ports, inland ports, and airports. Notably, the CTA lists lack of rest areas as an inter-provincial trade barrier in trucking. There is an urgent need for more rest areas for commercial drivers, particularly those accommodating long combination vehicles (LCVs).
Yet, in 2022, the UCP government promised 18 new rest areas. Construction was supposed to begin in 2023, and it’s now 2025—yet no new rest areas exist. If the minister is serious about trade-enabling infrastructure, he should take inspiration from Lougheed’s government: build roads, twin highways, and fulfill existing commitments instead of making new ones.
Regulatory Barriers: Overlooked and Unresolved
The MAGA minister also pledges to streamline regulations around trade-related infrastructure and interprovincial commerce, particularly within economic corridors. But Alberta trucking companies still face significant burdens, such as PST compliance when operating in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. This issue should have been addressed under the New West Partnership MoU—why wasn’t it?
Additionally, Alberta’s Ministry of Transportation and Economic Corridors has selectively granted an Electronic Logging Device (ELD) exemption permit to the oilfield industry while neglecting farmers and ranchers. The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) recognized this additional burden on farmers and ranchers and wrote an agriculture exemption into its ELD regulation. This MAGA minister only cares about farmers and ranchers during rodeo season. Manitoba offers an ELD exemption by permit to federal carriers with parts of the fleet that remain within the province. Why hasn’t Alberta followed suit? If the minister is serious about regulatory efficiency, these discrepancies need to be addressed.
All Talk No Action The MAGA minister claims Alberta is proactively tackling trade issues by collaborating with Prairie provinces and the North, reducing interprovincial trade barriers, and fostering partnerships with Indigenous groups. However, in the trucking sector, this simply isn’t happening. Clearly this minister should have read the reading materials that came with the job to understand the issues facing trucking. Instead, all his focus has been on economic corridors and this neglect has stifled trucking in Alberta.
My favourite Minister, in my favourite department created a news release. Let’s see what Transportation and Economic Corridors (TEC) had to say!
Alberta is marking more than a year of working with Saskatchewan and Manitoba through the Prairies Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance economic corridors and enhance collaboration with Alberta’s prairie neighbours. To date, the three provinces have achieved harmonization of regulations related to commercial carriers that improve both safety and regulatory requirements.
Bullshit! In the world of economic corridors and collaboration among provinces, it's essential to examine the actual progress made under MOU partnership. A year of following an agreement with no new initiatives. Way to go, celebrate accomplishing the bare minimum with a fake news release but, is the reality living up to the rhetoric?
“By keeping the momentum of the Prairies MOU going, we can continue to lead the way in building economic corridors, cutting red tape, and creating jobs. This paves the way to make nation-building projects a reality again in western Canada.” Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors
The current state of Alberta TEC operations is not leading the way in anything. This is a department in disarray with no oversight, outdated and costly computer systems and redundant manual processes, not a ministry leading in red tape reduction.
The TPA (third party auditor program) is a disaster, TPA auditors have zero oversight and do not review accurate records because TPA auditors do not have encryption keys, check out my blog, Questioning Accountability: The Controversial Alberta Government TPA Program and its Impact on Trucking Companies.
Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors Investigators and TPA’s use a paper chart to look up and convert hours of service information because the computer program (ARC) does not accept time by the second, check out my blog, Transportation and Economic Corridors data entry debacle, another waste of taxpayer dollars.
Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors does not have accurate safety fitness information because Alberta cannot share complete enforcement information from other jurisdictions due to a computer problem see my blog, Don’t look behind the curtain! unveiling the Alberta Transportation safety scam.
As the rhetoric of fake progress clashes with the realities on the ground, it becomes apparent that mere fake news releases and empty promises are insufficient. It is imperative for the leadership group of Alberta TEC to address the systemic shortcomings, enhance regulatory coherence, and prioritize the needs of commercial carriers. By exposing the disparities between official TEC statements and on-the-ground realities, I aim to advocate for substantial reforms, fair treatment of commercial carriers, and a transparent approach to governance in the transportation sector. It’s time to drain the swamp.
