TORONTO, Sept. 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As National Trucking Week wraps up this week, the Canadian Trucking Alliance is reminding decision makers in Ottawa that women and men who deliver Canada’s freight and keep our economy running deserve our respect and gratitude all year-round.

With parliamentary business set to resume for the fall session on September 16, CTA is sending a message to all federal political party staff that hard-working truck drivers and small fleet operators are deserving of much-needed relief from ineffective taxation, burdensome red tape and need safeguarding of their labour rights.

“The next few months – and 2025 in particular – are shaping up to be a critical period in Canada, politically. The trucking industry awaits how the major parties in Ottawa plan to improve the economic opportunities for professional truck drivers and trucking businesses, while relieving them of redundant taxes, red tape and ensuring fair business competition,” says CTA president Stephen Laskowski.

CTA would like the parties to address three major proposals over the next few months:

End the Carbon Tax. Diesel is the primary fuel used to power long-haul trucks. The federal carbon tax is intended to encourage truck operators to switch to less carbon intensive alternatives, which don’t exist in the long-haul sector for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the tax misses its intended purpose in trucking as it cannot alter fuel purchasing decisions and doesn’t provide any benefit to the environment.

In 2024, the carbon tax will add just under $2 billion to annual trucking costs in Canada. By 2030, the carbon tax will add more than $4 billion to annual trucking costs, an overall increase of about 15%. Over the 12-year tax phase in, the tax will have cost the trucking industry more than $26 billion. Due to razor thin margins in the trucking industry, these added costs cannot be absorbed and must be passed on to customers. As virtually every good purchased by Canadian families and businesses involves truck transportation, this means those families and businesses are paying increasingly higher prices for those goods to pay for this ineffective tax.

See CTA’s Carbon Tax Briefing Note for more details.

Eliminate Inter-Provincial Trade Barriers. In 2023 CTA along with provincial trucking association members produced a report (do link) maps out a list of cross-country interprovincial trade barriers, which the Alliance says are impeding supply chains and slowing down economic trade.

“The issues identified in this report align with several of CTA’s core policies in areas of driver safety, health and wellness; highway/technology infrastructure maintenance and expansion – as well as strengthening efforts to combat non-compliance in the industry and level the competitive playing field for responsible trucking companies. Ottawa needs to take the lead here to coordinate and breakdown inefficient and red tape between provincial trucking policy/regulatory approaches that is impeding the supply chain, and that will improve the work lives of Canada’s truck drivers,” said CTA’s Stephen Laskowski.

See CTA’s Inter-Provincial Trade Barriers Report, based on comprehensive feedback from CTA’s provincial associations and members fleets, shines a spotlight on the many areas requiring support.

Business Tax Relief and Compliance Fairness: Canada’s productivity has been lagging in recent years and we need to find ways to increase productivity to inoculate workers and businesses against inflation and rising costs. In addition to removing the burdensome carbon tax, truck operators want the federal excise tax (FET) refund reinstated for trucking idle-reduction technology (TIRT), which is used by the industry to reduce fuel consumption and removal of excise tax for fuel consumed by power take-off units (PTOs): restore CCA tax exemption for reinvesting in fuel saving technology; improving personal tax deductions for truck drivers; making the Accelerated Investment Incentive (AII) permanent; and, most importantly, lifting the T4A moratorium, which currently opens the door for rampant labour misclassification, abuse of the PSB tax code classification and worker abuse.

“We need to really focus on the current state of business in this country, and proposes solutions that will better support Canadian businesses, especially trade enabling sectors and those with large economic multiplier effects, like trucking,” says Laskowski. “It’s time to correct course and bring back a tax system and business environment that incentivizes growth and ensures fair competition. There are some easy changes that can be made to show all drivers we appreciate their efforts and understand the challenges of being away from home on the road.”

Click here for details on CTA’s Business Tax and Red Tape Relief proposal.

Canadian Trucking Alliance
Media Contact: Marco Beghetto, VP Communications & New Media
(416) 249-7401 x 238 Marco.Beghetto@cantruck.ca