The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) says immigration remains essential to the industry after Michelle Rempel Garner, Conservative shadow minister for immigration, called for abolishing the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

Rempel Garner told trucknews.com that overreliance on indentured, temporary foreign labor is a risk to supply-chain integrity. With unemployment rates rising, the talking point that “Canadians don’t want to do these jobs” does not hold, she said.

“This is the only way to incentivize policy development that will result in more unemployed and underemployed Canadians being hired across the country,” Rempel Garner said. “Without this step, industries that have become reliant on a virtually endless supply of indentured, temporary foreign labor will never move to do more to match Canadians with available jobs.”

Geoff Wood, CTA senior vice president of policy, said the TFWP will continue to have an important role and must remain a viable option to support the trucking industry.

“This key immigration program needs to remain open to legitimate operations,” he said. Wood added the program needs updating and a strict known-employer program should be implemented to ensure workers are treated fairly, paid properly and given opportunities to transition to permanent residency.

On Feb. 18, Lena Metlege Diab, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced the 2026 categories under the Express Entry system. Truck drivers, who have been off the list since February 2025, remained absent under transport occupations, although truck mechanics were added.

Conservatives want focus on unemployed Canadians

Responding to Diab’s announcement, Rempel Garner said the federal government must prioritize youth employment and direct efforts toward training unemployed young Canadians.

“Yet the Liberals are only focused on expanding immigration streams that push our young people further away from jobs that would set them on a path to success,” she said.

She added the federal government has not proposed a plan to ensure three million non-citizen temporary residents whose permits expire by the end of 2026 will leave Canada once their visas expire.

The lawmaker said Conservatives encourage industry associations that rely on temporary foreign workers to work collaboratively with government to better match Canadians with available jobs.

CTA wants abuse addressed

“The real issue is organizations that break the rules while still accessing the program and engage in gross labor abuses, all while profiteering off the various schemes that have been allowed to grow,” Wood said. He added scrapping a program relied on by law-abiding employers is not the solution, and the focus should be on addressing abuse rather than eliminating immigration pathways.

Kanwar Sierah, a regulated Canadian immigration consultant based in Mississauga, Ont., agreed with Rempel Garner. He said there are enough truck drivers — permanent residents and Canadian citizens — who would benefit from ending the program.

Mass importation triggering systemic corruption

The TFWP has been abused by some trucking companies to suppress wages and force temporary residents to operate unsafe equipment, he said. The mass importation of drivers also triggered systemic corruption within the industry, including fraudulent driving schools, leading to incompetent drivers operating on highways and an increase in collisions involving commercial vehicles, he added.

“Honest and ethical business owners who hire Canadians are being forced out of business because when exploitation becomes a business model, no one can compete with it,” Sierah said.

He added the TFWP was designed to support businesses during periods of economic growth. With the economy slowing and job opportunities declining, it is time to close the program permanently, he said.

Employment drops in trucking, logistic sectors

Trucking HR Canada’s latest numbers reinforce the debate. Employment in Canada’s trucking and logistics sector fell in December 2025, with 16,700 fewer jobs compared to the previous month, a 2.1% decline. There were 6,300 fewer truck drivers working during the period.

Compared with December 2024, total employment in trucking and logistics was down 1.2%, representing 9,800 fewer jobs year over year. While 900 more people were seeking work in the industry compared with November, the figure was down 3.9% — or 1,300 people — compared with December 2024.

While there were 14,900 fewer drivers working in December 2025 than a year earlier — a 4.3% decrease — the number of job seekers in the transport truck driver occupation rose 7.2% month to month in December, an increase of 1,100 people. Compared with a year earlier, the number of drivers actively looking for work was up 17.1%, or 2,400 people.

Call for more enforcement, regular audits

Manan Gupta, president of Skylake Immigration in Brampton, Ont., said scrapping the TFWP will not fix abuses in the immigration system.

He agreed with the CTA that in critical sectors like trucking, where labour shortages exist, ending the program would hurt compliant businesses and exacerbate shortages.

Gupta echoed Wood’s call for a trusted-employer program and sought stronger reforms, including tougher enforcement, regular audits, serious penalties for violations, public naming of bad employers and a zero-tolerance approach to exploitation or misrepresentation.