CTA supports amending livestock transportation rules, but concerns remain

by Truck News

TORONTO, Ont. – The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) is applauding the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) plan to modernize the rules for transporting livestock, but concerns remain over certain aspects of the proposed regulations.

One key contention raised by the CTA is what it called the exclusion of certain livestock truck transporters, which Susan Ewart, regional vice-president of the CTA, said limit the reach of some of the regulations to commercial carriers.

“As written, this would exclude from key training and record-keeping provisions producers and processors who claim ownership of the animals or poultry during transportation and do not charge a fee for transportation services,” Ewart said. “Further, the CTA is concerned this could result in a competitive imbalance between for-hire carriers and private carriers from both operational and enforcement perspectives.”

Other areas the CTA would like to see addressed in the modernization for the transport of livestock include the transport of unfit and/or compromised animals, saying though it agrees with the effort to prohibit loading unfit animals, as well as special provisions for moving compromised animals, drivers prefer not to be put in a position to make the decision on whether an animal is unfit or compromised, but should rather be the responsibility of the consignor.

The CTA would also like to see the transfer of responsibility amended to include a provision mandating the physical presence of the party loading an animal. The proposed regulations state that the receiving party must be present upon the animal’s arrival, but, as the CTA points out, the condition of the animal on arrival is largely dependent on the condition they were in when they were loaded onto the truck.

The CTA also said it welcomed the move to an outcome-based regulatory framework, saying it was appropriate for the provisions under ‘knowledge and skills.’

“In general, the CTA supports efforts to strengthen the rules that govern the transportation of livestock in Canada, and understands and accepts that societal expectations regarding farmed animal welfare, which extends to transportation, is becoming more of a concern for Canadians,” said the CTA’s policy analyst director, Lak Shoan. “We support further clarifying expectations for all parties involved in livestock transportation, including those that load and unload livestock as part of the transportation process.”


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