CTA pressed Ottawa for action on truck driver shortage
In January 2020, trucking groups met the federal employment minister and pointed to 22,000 vacant driver jobs.
On Jan. 27, 2020, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) and other trade associations met in Ottawa with Carla Qualtrough, then the federal minister of employment, workforce development and disability inclusion, to press for new federal steps on the driver shortage.
CTA asked for plans to draw both domestic and foreign workers into trucking, and for federal money for training programs in the sector.
"This is not a projected shortage, this is an actual shortage of 22,000 workers," said Jonathan Blackham, then CTA's director of policy.
The numbers behind the ask
The figures CTA cited at the time came from a labour survey covering 2018:
- Trucking had the highest job vacancy rate of any Canadian industry, averaging 6.6 per cent in 2018, more than double the national average.
- Truck driver vacancies had more than doubled since 2016, reaching 22,000 in 2018.
- Close to 7 per cent of truck drivers were 65 or older.
- Only 9.5 per cent of drivers were under 30, compared with 24 per cent of the overall Canadian labour force.
The meeting came weeks before COVID-19 upended freight markets. The same workforce concerns, including how foreign drivers are recruited, have stayed on the industry's agenda in the years since.