During the recent Council of the Federation meetings, Ontario and other provinces across Canada called on the federal government to give the provinces more authority over immigration.
The Ontario Trucking Association applauded the proposal. If Ontario is allowed increased oversight, OTA called on the province to fix the broken immigration system that is fueling labour abuse and exploitation throughout Ontario’s trucking industry.
OTA likens the immigration system currently being exploited by the trucking industry to modern day slavery as newcomers are forced to pay significant sums of money for their pathway to permanent residency and citizenship.
“If Ontario wants its trade to move efficiently and productively, law-abiding trucking fleets need legitimate access to foreign drivers,” said OTA president & CEO Stephen Laskowski. “But the current trucking immigration system is broken, leading to hundreds of truck drivers on Ontario’s roads who are not properly trained, putting motorists at grave risk, and are forced to work for wages one-third of industry standards – while under the threat of deportation or other forms of coercion and intimidation.
“This erosion of human rights, exploitation and disregard for law and order is not what we stand for as Ontarians. It is becoming increasingly dangerous and needs to stop.”
The trucking immigration scheme, which has been thoroughly documented and shared with the federal government by the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) over the past several years, operates unfettered in Ontario and throughout Canada in a variety of ways.
The entire process involves a network of operators working in a highly organized and coordinated fashion – from immigration consultants/services, driving schools, temp agencies, and the carrier employer. In some instances, some of these factions are integrated or may fall under the umbrella of a single company. Each of these players ‘charges’ the truck driver for services or are compensated by another entity throughout this chain. As a result, it is not uncommon for international students, permanent residents and others going through the immigration system to pay between $40,000-$80,000 in multiple stages to go through the LMIA process, gain employment, and eventually become a permanent resident or citizen. In many cases, to pay this debt, they are forced to driver commercial vehicles for either no wages, or significantly lower wages than legally permitted. Other programs like provincial nominee programs and internation student schemes can also employ much the same coercive tactics.
The OTA is calling on the province to work with the industry to end this abuse by creating a Known Employer Program that would ensure drivers going through the provincial immigration system in would be well trained, well paid, treated properly while working for safe and compliant operators.
Below is a exert of the Council of Federation’s release yesterday on the need to expand provincial control on immigration:
Immigration benefits Canada on many levels, positively shaping our communities and economy. Provinces and territories are best positioned to understand their local labour market needs and call on the federal government to support their respective priorities.
Premiers emphasized their authority over immigration levels planning, and highlighted that the Provincial and Territorial Nominee Program (PTNP) is critically important for economic growth and meeting the regional labour market needs across the country. Premiers call on the federal government to reinstate PTNP allocations, which were reduced by 50 per cent, and increase their share of total economic immigration in the Immigration Levels Plan. They also urged the federal government to engage meaningfully with provinces and territories regarding international student policy and to ensure postgraduate work permit eligibility is based on local labour market needs. Premiers agreed to work together to use their authority under section 95 of the Constitution including to issue work permits.