OTTAWA — Starting today, Canadian long-haul truck drivers will have their allowable meal deduction claims raised to 60 percent, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced in the Tory federal budget yesterday.

The government will incrementally restore the allowable proportion of meal costs drivers can expense to 80 percent, from the 50 percent it has been since 1994, when the former Liberals cut it.

The limit for will increase to 65% in 2008, 70 percent in 2009, 75 percent in 2010, and 80 percent after 2010. The U.S. will restore the deduction limit to 80 percent next year.

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“This is a clear, decisive victory for the hardworking Canadian men and women of the trucking industry,” says David Bradley, CEO, Canadian Trucking Alliance, in a press release. “This is a good move.”

This benefit, however, will be partially offset by a gradual reduction in the input tax credit for GST and HST on meals.

To be eligible, drivers must be away for at least 24 consecutive hours, and the purpose of the trip is to transport goods beyond a 160 km radius from the home location; in addition, the vehicle must have a GVWR of greater than 11,788 kgs.

The CTA, along with the Owner-Operator’s Business Association of Canada, the Teamsters — with the assistance of Today’s Trucking and TodaysTrucking.com, launching the End the Lunch Bag Letdown campaign last year, where truck drivers sent thousands of post cards to the finance minister calling upon him to restore the 80 percent deduction.

As TodaysTrucking.com reported recently, over 4,000 postcards were sent to Ottawa in just a few months.

“It proves once again,” says Bradley, “that if you believe in your cause and it is just, that you make reasonable arguments, if you work with other groups having the same objective, and most of all if you are persistent you can prevail upon government to do the right thing. You have to be in it for the long haul and you have to have a government that is willing to listen.”

Meanwhile, there were other measures in the budget applauded by the trucking industry, including $16 billion in new infrastructure funding, most of which starts in 2010-2011. Also added is $6 billion over four years for a new Building Canada Fund.

From now until 2010, all funding programs announced in 2006 are being folded into various funds, including the Building Canada fund and the fund for gateways and border crossings (including funding for the Windsor-Detroit corridor and the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor).

Other measures that could eventually have some relevance or benefit for trucking, include:

Updating the Canada-US Tax Treaty to facilitate cross-border investment and commerce; increasing the CCA rate on computers from 45 percent to 55 percent; $500 million starting in 2008-09 to provide training opportunities for those unable to access training under current EI programs. And $2 billion over 7 years to support the production of renewable fuels like biodiesel (see today’s other headline news stories for more on this).

On these last few initiatives, CTA says it was difficult to do a full assessment of the full impacts on trucking from the information contained in the budget papers.