Nearly 100 trucking companies with a history of safety infractions, labour violations and other regulatory failures have been granted approval by Ottawa to hire temporary foreign workers since 2019, a Globe and Mail investigation has found.
The compliance issues ranged from flunking safety audits to concerns over forged documents. In some cases, companies were approved by Employment and Social Development Canada to use the migrant labour program despite failing to comply with wage theft orders issued by the same ministry.
One carrier identified by The Globe’s analysis was decertified by Manitoba authorities over chronic safety issues, yet subsequently granted permission to hire temporary workers on three occasions.
The Manitoba government accuses the company of setting up a related carrier in Alberta linked to a fatal collision in Brandon, Man., in late May. The incident prompted the province to call for the creation of a national trucking registry to better track bad actors in the sector.
The Globe identified another instance of the federal government approving temporary foreign hires for a trucking company whose safety fitness certificate was suspended by provincial authorities, this time in Saskatchewan.
After the suspension, a company by the same name, Super Cat, was set up in Alberta. Alberta’s transport regulator said Saskatchewan did not share Super Cat’s prior safety record. Saskatchewan’s transport regulator said it “routinely provides” carrier information to other provinces upon request.
Critics argue that granting trucking companies with regulatory issues access to a pool of vulnerable workers defeats compliance efforts aimed at bolstering industry standards.
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year-long Globe investigation published in May found weak enforcement and poor information sharing between jurisdictions have allowed some companies to escape scrutiny. The latest findings raise fresh concerns about the country’s disjointed approach to trucking regulation, even as the industry has become increasingly reliant on the federal migrant labour program.
The program places drivers on closed work permits that tie them to a single employer in Canada, prompting criticism from labour advocates who have long argued that temporary workers’ precarious immigration status makes it difficult for them to challenge poor safety practices or workplace abuse.
