Representatives from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) recently provided enforcement activity updates to the Ontario Trucking Association’s (OTA) Board of Directors. They delivered a clear and consistent message to the board: Enforcement efforts are intensifying to keep pace with the growing spread of non-compliance in trucking.
For ESDC, inspection data continues to reveal significant issues, with inspection results showing a national non-compliance rate of approximately 47%, rising to 63% in Ontario. Officials also noted a 300% year-over-year increase in the issuance of Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs), reflecting a more assertive enforcement posture.
The introduction of new tools, such as the ability to issue daily AMPs for ongoing violations, is expected to further strengthen compliance efforts by increasing the financial consequences for employers who fail to correct violations immediately.
On the provincial side, the WSIB reported that over $12 million dollars in unpaid premiums have already been assessed against Ontario-based trucking companies. In recent cases, individual assessments have approached $1.5 million for some companies, underscoring the scale of non-compliance and the financial risks involved.
“We are thankful for the enforcement efforts we are seeing,” said Jonathan Blackham, director of Policy and Public Affairs for OTA. “There has been a lot of positive momentum on the enforcement side, and we want to see governments at all levels keep this up.”
Enforcement agencies are increasingly working in coordination. Joint initiatives involving commercial vehicle enforcement at weigh stations have already occurred across multiple jurisdictions, including British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and at the Port of Montreal. These coordinated inspections remain ongoing, including once again in Ontario this week.
At the federal level, momentum continues to build. The House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities is actively examining Driver Inc., while recent announcements from Minister Patty Hajdu confirmed that federal, provincial, and territorial labour ministers have directed officials to establish a national, multi-level working group to address worker misclassification in the trucking industry.
Additional measures, including the removal of the CRA’s T4A reporting moratorium, enhanced information-sharing between ESDC and the CRA, and broader regulatory initiatives about to begin, signal a coordinated and sustained effort to tackle non-compliance.