December 9, 2024
BCTA members, please share this as widely as possible – employees, family, friends colleagues.
For several years we have been talking about “Driver Inc.” A couple of years ago the federal government started talking about “misclassification.” Last week in Surrey, Federal Labour Minister MacKinnon made an announcement recognizing “misclassification” is real.
Are you kidding me?
The scourge of tax fraud that has distorted and is destroying our industry in Ontario is spreading, and it’s arrived in full force in BC. There are hundreds of drivers in BC that have switched to a Driver Inc business model with the complete knowledge and support of the carriers they work for. Want to know why rates are depressed? Why lanes simply aren’t profitable? Why you cannot sell your product or equipment to carriers? It’s billions in tax fraud. Those that don’t pay are at a big advantage over those that do.
And yet the federal government refuses to take meaningful action against those in the trucking industry who cheat, defraud the system and exploit their own workers.
We need everyone in the industry to tell their MP that their party needs to do something about it.
“This organized corruption comes at the expense of responsible and compliant businesses that pay their fair share and abide by Canada’s laws and standards,” says Greg Arndt, chair of the Canadian Trucking Alliance. “It is having devastating impacts on fair competition, which our supply chain and economy is based on, as well as society in general, which depends on businesses following the rules meant for everyone and paying their fair share to fund critical programs for all Canadians.”
Canadian businesses who pay their fair share and comply with Canadian rules and regulations are saying enough is enough. And every political party needs to stand up for them.
Our campaign (click here) gives a voice to people and businesses. It tells your local MP and all the federal ministers responsible for putting an end to this crisis, to do the right thing and enforce Canadian law. It is critical this issue is front and centre for each party in the new year.
We strongly encourage each worker and employees who value their employment rights, mandated entitlements, and job security, to do the same. We have crafted a separate memo that specifically speaks to your employees and explains how the Driver Inc. scheme threatens them directly. Click here or see attached to download and please send to all your drivers and employees.
“Many in our sector believe that our elected officials lack the true political will to act and that efforts led by the departments have been ineffective. Recent protests in the streets held by truck drivers who are not being paid by their Driver Inc employers and stripped of their labour rights should remind us there is still a long way to go before confidence is restored.”
Specifically, the campaign demands action on the following issues:
CRA commit to a meaningful enforcement on the personal service business model, which has been abused and exploited by Driver Inc companies to avoid paying required taxes.
- Reinstitute the mandatory issuance of T4As, which will go a long way to exposing the abuse of the PSB system and misclassification.
- Expedite the information sharing agreement between CRA and ESDC to help facilitate enforcement.
- Continue and increase support to ESDC so it has the proper resources to effectively enforce the rules.
Again, CLICK HERE to send a letter yourself. It just takes a few seconds. And please use the attached letter or send this link to all employees, truck drivers and team members and urge them to have their voices heard too
