Part 1 – Leadership, Direction, and the Governance Gap
The Transport Canada briefing binder for Changing Landscape of Truck Drivers in Canada was released this month. I spent my weekend reading it so you don’t have to.
Standing Committees meet to examine issues and make recommendations. Their recommendations are not laws or regulations; they shape direction and priorities that may eventually move through Cabinet and the long painful regulatory process.
The question that keeps resurfacing is simple:
Why does nothing ever change?
If government wanted to make change, it would. Change requires political will. Without it, files stall.
ELDs are a perfect example. They have been mandatory since 2021 and there is still no national ELD interpretation guide. Meanwhile, technology has already moved ahead. AI-enabled driver monitoring, biometric logins, predictive telematics — these tools are evolving faster than policy.
The core issue is not technology. It is leadership and direction.
Since 2019, Canada has had six Transport Ministers. Most did not remain in the role long enough to set or sustain long-term priorities. The Transport portfolio is not typically viewed as a high-profile or politically strategic ministry. It manages every mode — road, rail, air, marine — and much of the work involves responding to crises rather than setting proactive direction.
Ministers rely heavily on the Deputy Minister and public service for continuity. On the road transportation file specifically, regulatory authority flows through the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA), where all provinces and territories shape the Strategic Plan (currently 2024–2027). The collaborative structure makes sense. The logistics is where it falls apart.
Imagine a football team with one head coach, one assistant coach, and thirteen special teams coaches — all calling plays. This is the reality of the CCMTA, 13 provincial and territory representatives plus ten provincial trucking associations and roughly twenty national industry organizations. All of them have different and competing priorities and the CCMTA is expected to bring them all together in agreement under the direction given by Transport Canada. The result is not collaboration; it is diffusion.
Change happens when political will aligns with public pressure.
After Humboldt, there was will. MELT followed.
Now there is pressure around Driver Inc., licence mills, and unsafe carriers. Driver Inc. has its own section in this committee report. Driver Inc is not new — but it is politically relevant again.
Around 2017, carrier operating costs rose sharply while freight rates did not keep pace. One lever available to reduce cost was labour classification. Driver Inc. expanded. Today, with government fiscal pressure mounting, enforcement of Driver Inc solves two problems: tax recovery and targeted safety intervention.
Committee Composition and Industry Knowledge
The Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities includes ten Members of Parliament. Each biography lists “issues raised relating to the Transport Canada portfolio.”
There were 35 issues identified.
They include ports, rail investments, emissions, public transit, marine pollution, aviation delays, climate resilience, and rural connectivity.
None of the listed issues relate directly to road transportation safety.
There is no reference to:
The study is titled Changing Landscape of Truck Drivers in Canada. Yet among the ten committee members, none have direct professional experience in commercial road transportation.
That is not criticism. It is structural observation.
Direction Going Forward
In his opening remarks, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon identified three priorities:
This summer, Transport Canada hosted a “trucking hackathon.” The outcomes were:
The goals are clear. The question is execution.
Cooperation cannot remain rhetorical. Every ministry, association, and industry body must move from “what should be done” to “what are we doing.”
Fragmented regulation, information silos, and reactive governance will not produce durable change.
If meaningful reform is coming, it will require sustained leadership, someone has to make hard decisions.
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.
