Submitted: October 29, 2026

Status: The Chair of the House of Commons Legislative Committee on Bill C-39 accepted CTOA’s written brief for translation, distribution to committee members and publication. The Special Senate Committee on the Building Canada Strong Act confirmed that CTOA’s submission was received and will be shared with committee members in both official languages for consideration.

Key recommendations

1. Balanced representation of small and mid-sized fleets on the National Trade Corridors Council.
2. Annual public reporting and meaningful stakeholder consultation.
3. Protection of confidential commercial and operational information.
4. Measurement of practical trucking bottlenecks and first- and last-mile costs.
5. Fair and transparent implementation of related labour-compliance measures.
6. An independent, objective and accessible approach to any trucking trusted-employer framework.
7. Monitoring of competition and market-access conditions affecting small and mid-sized fleets.

Full submitted brief

Written Submission on Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act

Small- and Mid-Sized Fleet Representation, Accountable Trade-Corridor Governance and Fair Implementation of Related Trucking Measures

Submitted to:
Special Senate Committee on the Building Canada Strong Act

Submitted by:
Canada Truck Operators Association

Date: 29 October 2026

Executive summary

The Canada Truck Operators Association (CTOA) supports the objectives of Bill C-39 to strengthen Canada’s trade corridors, improve the movement of goods, modernize transportation systems and protect workers.

Trucking is the essential first and last mile connection between ports, rail terminals, airports, warehouses, manufacturers, construction sites, retailers and Canadian communities. The sector is not made up only of large national fleets. Innovation, capacity and regional service depend heavily on small and mid-sized fleets and owner-operators.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s 2025 data indicate that 99.5 per cent of employer establishments in truck transportation have fewer than 100 employees. Of the 52,002 employer establishments identified, 43,397, or 83.4 per cent, have only one to four employees.

Bill C-39 does not establish requirements concerning business size, regional diversity, transportation mode or operating experience in appointments to the proposed National Trade Corridors Council.

CTOA recommends that Bill C-39 and its implementation be strengthened through seven measures:

1. Ensure balanced representation of small and mid-sized fleets on the National Trade Corridors Council,
2. Require annual public reporting and meaningful stakeholder consultation,
3. Protect confidential commercial and operational information,
4. Measure practical trucking bottlenecks and first and last mile costs,
5. Implement related labour compliance measures fairly and transparently,
6. Ensure that any trucking trusted employer framework is independent, objective and accessible to compliant small and mid-sized fleets, and
7. Monitor competition and market access conditions affecting small and mid sized fleets.

CTOA proposes specific amendments to proposed sections 49.03 and 49.05, set out in Recommendations 1 and 2.

CTOA supports decisive enforcement against human trafficking, coercion, recruitment-fee abuse, wage theft, immigration fraud and deliberate worker misclassification. These protections should be implemented without excluding compliant small and mid-sized fleets because of their size, association membership, lack of an extensive LMIA history or inability to obtain an industry endorsement.

About CTOA

The Canada Truck Operators Association represents small and mid-sized fleets, owner-operators, dispatchers and professional drivers across Canada. CTOA’s members operate in general freight, refrigerated transportation, flatbed, specialized transportation, cross-border service, regional distribution and first- and last-mile movements.

Most trucking employer establishments have between one and four employees. In many cases, owners of small and mid-sized fleets personally manage dispatch, customer relationships, compliance, safety, insurance, payroll and government paperwork.

These fleets typically do not have the government-relations, legal, human resources and regulatory departments available to significantly larger organizations. Nevertheless, they must meet the same safety, labour, tax, immigration and transportation requirements.

CTOA supports high safety and labour standards, fair competition, worker protection and evidence-based enforcement. Government policy must also recognize the operating realities and administrative capacity of small and mid-sized fleets.

Recommendation 1: Balanced representation on the National Trade Corridors Council

Proposed section 49.03 of the Canada Transportation Act would authorize the Minister of Transport to appoint members of the National Trade Corridors Council. The proposed provision does not establish requirements concerning the Council’s composition.

CTOA agrees that the trucking sector should be represented. However, one general trucking seat would not necessarily capture the differences between:

• Large national fleets and small or mid-sized regional fleets,
• Asset-based carriers and owner-operators,
• Long-haul, regional and urban operations,
• General freight and specialized transportation,
• Fleets serving ports, rail terminals, border crossings, rural communities and northern regions, and
• Companies with extensive administrative departments and businesses managed directly by their owners.

The Council’s recommendations could affect infrastructure priorities, corridor designations, performance indicators, data collection and government responses to disruptions. Small and mid-sized fleets therefore require a direct and identifiable voice.

CTOA proposes the following language:

49.03(1.1) In making appointments under subsection (1), the Minister must seek to ensure that the membership of the Council reflects the diversity of participants in Canada’s supply chains, including diversity by transportation mode, geographic region, business size and operating model.

49.03(1.2) Where the Minister appoints one or more members to provide the perspective of the trucking sector, at least one such member must be nominated by an organization representing small and mid-sized trucking businesses or owner-operators. In this subsection, “small and mid sized trucking business” means a business with fewer than 100 employees.

CTOA requests one Council seat for a CTOA nominated representative of small and mid-sized fleets, owner-operators and drivers.

Appointments should be made through a transparent process. The government should publish:

• The experience and representation criteria,
• The process through which candidates and organizations may apply,
• The categories of participants represented on the Council,
• The organizations invited to nominate representatives, and
• Applicable conflict of interest and confidentiality requirements.

This would provide balanced trucking representation consistent with the actual structure of the Canadian industry.

Recommendation 2: Annual reporting and stakeholder consultation

Under proposed section 49.05, the Council would provide a report only when requested by the Minister.

A national body with access to supply chain information and the ability to influence infrastructure and policy priorities should have a regular public reporting obligation.

CTOA proposes the following language:

49.05(1) Within three months after the end of each fiscal year, the Council must submit to the Minister a report describing its activities, findings, consultations and recommendations during that year.

49.05(2) The Minister must make the report available to the public within 30 days after receiving it, subject to the protection of confidential, commercially sensitive, personal and security-related information.

49.05(3) The report must include a description of the Council’s engagement with small and mid sized fleets and an assessment of the potential effects of its principal recommendations on those fleets.

Before making major recommendations, the Council should consult:

• Drivers and owner operators,
• Small and mid sized fleets,
• Large fleets,
• Shippers and receivers,
• Ports and terminal operators,
• Railways and intermodal providers,
• Indigenous communities and businesses,
• Labour and worker protection organizations,
• Regional and northern transportation stakeholders, and
• Provincial and territorial governments.

Consultation should not be limited to organizations already represented on the Council.

Recommendation 3: Protection and appropriate use of transportation data

Bill C-39 would expand the circumstances in which transportation information already provided to federal institutions may be obtained by the Minister and communicated to Council members when necessary for the Council’s mandate.

CTOA recognizes the value of reliable information for identifying bottlenecks, disruptions and infrastructure needs. However, shipment level and company level information may disclose commercially sensitive matters, including:

• Customer relationships,
• Freight rates and surcharges,
• Routes and volumes,
• Equipment utilization,
• Operating costs,
• Contract terms,
• Driver and dispatch information, and
• Competitive business strategies.

Small and mid-sized fleets may be reluctant to participate in data initiatives if they cannot determine who will have access, how the information will be used or whether it could be disclosed to competitors or used for unrelated purposes.

The legislation, regulations or Council terms of reference should provide that:

1. Information may be collected and used only to the extent reasonably necessary for the Council’s statutory mandate,
2. Public reports should use aggregated or anonymized information wherever possible,
3. Council members and staff must comply with clear confidentiality and conflict of interest obligations,
4. Identifiable commercial information must not be provided to private sector participants unless strictly necessary and subject to enforceable safeguards,
5. Fleets must be able to correct materially inaccurate information attributed to them,
6. Data retention and access rules must be published,
7. Cybersecurity and access controls must be independently reviewed, and
8. Information sharing must not be used for unrelated regulatory action without proper statutory authority and procedural fairness.

These safeguards should protect commercially sensitive information without preventing the government from investigating suspected violations through its existing legal authorities.

Recommendation 4: Practical trucking performance indicators

Proposed section 49.06 would authorize the establishment of performance indicators and targets to assist the Council in monitoring the movement of goods through trade corridors.

The Council should measure more than total freight volumes and overall transit times. A corridor can appear efficient at the national level while drivers and small and mid-sized fleets experience significant delays and uncompensated costs.

The indicators should include:

• Border processing and inspection times,
• Port, rail terminal and warehouse wait times,
• Detention and loading or unloading delays,
• Availability of safe truck parking and rest facilities,
• First and last mile road access,
• Bridge, road and seasonal weight restrictions,
• Cargo theft and organized freight crime,
• Empty repositioning and deadhead movements,
• Reliability of digital trade and border systems,
• Northern and rural service capacity,
• Road conditions and construction delays,
• Access to washrooms and basic facilities for drivers, and
• The effect of disruptions on small and mid-sized fleets.

The Council should examine how policies directed toward ports, railways or marine transportation affect trucking movements at each end of a shipment. A measure that reduces a rail or marine shipping cost may still increase the complete supply chain cost if it creates additional truck repositioning, terminal waiting, specialized-equipment or short-haul expenses.

The Council should therefore be required to consider the complete freight journey, including first and last mile trucking costs, when evaluating trade corridor performance and recommending infrastructure or regulatory measures.

CTOA has launched its First and Last Mile Steel Freight Cost Evidence initiative, through which small and mid-sized fleets may confidentially submit operating examples. CTOA is prepared to share anonymized findings with the Council and Transport Canada:

https://thectoa.ca/steel-freight-evidence/

Recommendation 5: Fair implementation of related labour-compliance measures

CTOA supports enforcement against deliberate worker misclassification and wage theft. A worker who is an employee in substance is entitled to the protections of the Canada Labour Code.

Legitimate owner-operator businesses also exist in Canadian trucking. Their status must be decided on the whole working relationship under the applicable legal test, not on incorporation or payment method alone.

Where compliance concerns are identified, affected fleets and workers should be able to understand:

• The facts relied upon,
• The legal factors applied,
• Whether an officer’s communication is advice, a voluntary compliance request, a formal determination or an enforceable direction,
• The corrective action required,
• When additional information may be submitted, and
• The available reconsideration or review process.

In implementing related trucking enforcement measures, the Labour Program should:

1. Provide written, factor-specific reasons for a misclassification conclusion,
2. Distinguish clearly between counselling, a voluntary compliance request and a formal determination,
3. Provide accessible trucking specific guidance and evidence checklists,
4. Obtain relevant information from affected workers without imposing unnecessary administrative burdens,
5. Allow a reasonable corrective period for remediable, non-deliberate deficiencies,
6. Maintain immediate and serious consequences for coercion, recruitment fee abuse, wage theft, deliberate misclassification and repeated non compliance, and
7. Report publicly on enforcement outcomes using anonymized and aggregated information.

A corrective period should not shield deliberate violations or prevent workers from recovering wages or entitlements legally owed to them.

Recommendation 6: Temporary foreign workers and a possible trusted employer framework

CTOA recognizes that Bill C-39 does not establish a trusted or known employer program under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Nevertheless, the possibility of a trucking-specific framework has been raised during the broader policy discussion surrounding Bill C-39. The Canadian Trucking Alliance has publicly stated that it is participating in an ESDC working group concerning such a model.

Official ESDC briefing materials state that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program established a Trucking Industry Committee in March 2025. Its stated purposes include addressing LMIA misuse, TFW Program non compliance, labour market responsiveness and worker protection.

CTOA has not located comprehensive public information identifying the committee’s complete membership, participant selection process, terms of reference, criteria under consideration, implementation timeline or process for additional organizations to participate.

A mandatory trusted employer model could determine which trucking fleets are permitted to recruit internationally. Its design could materially affect vulnerable workers, compliant employers, competition, regional supply chains and driver availability.

CTOA accepts that workers recruited through an employer specific LMIA must be employees and cannot be treated as independent contractors. CTOA is not seeking to weaken that requirement.

Human trafficking, coercion, immigration fraud and recruitment fee abuse should be investigated and prosecuted. At the same time, employer eligibility should be determined independently by the government and should not depend on membership in, nomination by or endorsement from a private industry association.

The Committee should recommend that ESDC:

1. Publish the mandate, membership, selection process and timeline of the Trucking Industry Committee and any trusted employer working group,
2. Include small and mid sized fleets, temporary foreign workers, immigrant-driver organizations, owner operators and independent worker protection organizations in relevant consultations,
3. Publish proposed eligibility criteria for public comment,
4. Administer eligibility independently, without requiring association membership, endorsement or nomination,
5. Use objective, government verifiable criteria rather than fleet size, historical LMIA volume or an extensive history in the TFW Program,
6. Provide a defined path for compliant newer fleets,
7. Provide written reasons, an opportunity to correct minor deficiencies and access to independent reconsideration, and
8. Publish anonymized program results and compliance outcomes.

Relevant criteria should include verified safety performance, payroll and wage compliance, workers’ compensation clearance, insurance, recruiter compliance, employment agreements, direct wage payment and the absence of substantiated trafficking, coercion or wage theft violations.

Allegations should be investigated seriously, but eligibility decisions should be based on verified evidence and fair process.

Recommendation 7: Competition and market access

Bill C-39 narrows a transportation specific notification process for certain trucking and bus transactions. The Competition Act continues to apply.

Nevertheless, consolidation in trucking, freight brokerage, logistics, terminals and intermodal services can affect small and mid-sized fleets through reduced access to freight, unfavourable payment terms, rate pressure and diminished negotiating power.

Transport Canada and the Competition Bureau should monitor whether market consolidation affects:

• Access to freight and shipper contracts,
• Freight-broker and intermediary practices,
• Payment periods,
• Re-brokering and broker layering,
• Rate transparency,
• Participation by small and mid-sized fleets, and
• Regional transportation capacity.

Transport Canada and the Competition Bureau should report publicly on these conditions within three years of Bill C-39 receiving Royal Assent.

Relevant findings should also be considered by the National Trade Corridors Council when evaluating the resilience and competitiveness of Canada’s supply chains.

Requested committee action

CTOA respectfully requests that the Special Senate Committee endorse Recommendations 1 through 7 and, in particular:

1. Recommend amendments to proposed sections 49.03 and 49.05 concerning balanced representation and annual public reporting,
2. Recommend one Council seat for a CTOA-nominated representative of small and mid-sized fleets, owner-operators and drivers,
3. Recommend strong safeguards for confidential commercial information,
4. Recognize first and last mile trucking costs in trade-corridor performance indicators,
5. Include observations concerning transparent and proportionate implementation of trucking labour compliance measures,
6. Request that ESDC disclose the structure and membership of its Trucking Industry Committee and trusted-employer work, and
7. Invite CTOA to appear before the Committee to provide evidence from small and mid-sized fleets, owner-operators and drivers.

Conclusion

CTOA supports the central objectives of Bill C-39. More efficient trade corridors, modern transportation systems, strong worker protections and fair competition are in the interests of professional drivers and compliant trucking fleets. The legislation will be stronger if small and mid-sized fleets are included directly in its governance and implementation.

Worker protection and the inclusion of small and mid-sized fleets are not competing objectives. A transparent, evidence-based system can protect vulnerable workers, hold deliberate violators accountable and ensure that compliant fleets of every size have a fair opportunity to participate in Canada’s supply chains.

CTOA is prepared to provide anonymized operating examples, participate in technical discussions and assist with the development of practical trucking-specific guidance.

Respectfully submitted,

Tejpreet (Tej) Dulat
Director, Government and Public Affairs
Canada Truck Operators Association