The Canadian Truck Operators Association (CTOA) says its members feel targeted by recent and upcoming enforcement initiatives regarding the classification of drivers as independent contractors.
The federal government promised in its recently passed budget to crack down on the misclassification of drivers, which it says deprives drivers operating as independent contractors of labor protections while allowing employers to sidestep certain payroll deductions. Most recently, the feds announced coming enforcement initiatives in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).
“While CTOA fully supports compliance, safety enforcement, and protections for workers, the scale, timing, and geographic concentration of this blitz raise urgent questions that must be answered,” the association said in a release issued last night.
It says over the past week alone, more than 60% of its Toronto-area members have received Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) inspection notices, with many given just 48 to 72 hours to comply.
“If this blitz is ‘national,’ why is Ontario, and specifically GTA-based, ethnically diverse companies, bearing the overwhelming brunt?” CTOA asks in its release.
It also questions the timing, during peak shipping season and when carriers are coping with tariffs affecting freight volumes. And it wonders “was a list [of carriers using incorporated drivers] quietly provided to the government?”
The organization accuses the government of “targeted inspections” creating the appearance of “market manipulation, an attempt to squeeze small operators and a push toward industry consolidation under a few dominant players.”
The enforcement crackdown, alleges CTOA, risks “creating panic among drivers and small carriers, destabilizing freight movement, slowing deliveries, pushing small businesses out of the market, destroying thousands of jobs, and impacting the entire GTA economy.”
Affected businesses are mostly “immigrant-owned, family-run” and operate legally following compliance guidelines, the association says.
As for its stance on driver classification, CTOA says it supports: “strong enforcement against real violators, clear rules, proper classification, and a fair labor system.”
“But misclassification cannot be used as a weapon to target an entire region or community. Compliance must be based on facts, not lobby-driven narratives. Education and collaboration produce better results than punitive blitzes,” the release said.
The CTOA says it will be calling on the Ministry of Labour to clarify if the national inspection program is regional in scope, why it appears to target ethnically diverse companies, whether it is working from a list to identify targets, why the blitz was initiated during the busiest freight season of the year, and whether a risk assessment has been done on the supply chain impacts.
