Feds to fund truck driver, manager training in Western Canada

WINNIPEG, Man. — The federal government on Friday announced with the Manitoba Trucking Association (MTA) that it was making available $268,000 to support training in the Western Canadian trucking industry.

The announcement was made by Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, on behalf of Michelle Rempel, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification. The money will go towards training for Western Canadian truck drivers and managers.

The investment was made through the Western Diversification Program. It will provide drivers and company managers with online and in-person skills training and knowledge transfer as well as technology demonstrations, to encourage the adoption f the latest transportation technologies, including digital driver logs and logistics software.

A Web training portal will be established to house the training material, the feds announced.

The MTA will help develop the training materials, along with provincial associations in Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C.

“Our government’s top priority continues to be job creation, economic growth, and long-term prosperity,” said Glover. “In partnership with the trucking industry, we are addressing skills development and knowledge transfer concerns for both drivers and managers which will result in improved productivity and the reduction of barriers to the movement of goods.”

“This project is meaningful for the trucking industry in Western Canada,” added Terry Shaw, executive director, MTA. “Having sector specific training tools, created by industry for industry, and the needed technologies to deliver them remotely will afford trucking companies improved and expanded means to engage in ongoing education. We appreciate Western Economic Diversification Canada’s support for this project.”

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First, establish the truck driver as a “skilled” occupation, and then set and enforce standards!

It is time to recognize professional drivers as such, good step towards training as long as the money goes to setting a National standard, then enforcing same and recognizing the occupation of driver as “skilled”!

For the past 40 years “Professional” drivers have been working for “MINIMAL” wages,It is time the Federal and Provincial government recognized “Line-Drivers” in particular, as a “SKILLED” trade! $268,000 dollars is a joke-should be $268,000 million! The Corporate “SHIPPERS” HAVE ENJOYED A Free ride long enough! The shortage of drivers would cease and we would not have to hire “unskilled” off shore people a challenge to our high COMMERCIAL ACCIDENT rate the past 25 years! The”politics”in this Industry need to change. A serious class 1 Driver Training program across Canada is long overdue! John Wihksen — Vancouver.