Truckers Warn US Border Vaccination Mandate Could Worsen Supply Chain Problems | The Canadian News

New rules that go into effect Saturday that will require COVID-19 vaccines for truck drivers crossing the Canada-U.S. Border could exacerbate supply chain problems in a sector already facing a shortage of workforce, say representatives of the country’s trucking industry.

Truck drivers entering Canada from the U.S. will be required to show proof of vaccination at the border beginning January 15, under a policy announced last November that will remove the current vaccination exemption for essential workers. Unvaccinated Canadians trying to cross the border back into the country would have to be tested and go into isolation, while Americans without the vaccine would be turned away.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) projects that 10 to 15 percent of cross-border truckers will be marginalized as a result of the new policy, with approximately 12,000 Canadian drivers affected.

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However, Canadian government estimates are down about five percent, according to a source quoted by Reuters over the weekend.

CTA president Stephen Laskowski says the percentage of unvaccinated drivers varies regionally in Canada, as do rates among the general population.

But Canada’s aging trucking workforce already faces a pre-term labor shortage, he tells Global News, with about 23,000 job openings at the end of the third quarter of last year.

“We can’t afford any more vacancies, not with the supply chain as it is,” says Laskowski. “We need more truckers, not less.”

Prices could rise as drivers, supply will be tight

The supply chain problems that marked the second half of 2021 have persisted into the new year, with labor shortages plaguing the shipping industry and production centers like China.

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“We’re going to see grocery prices skyrocket, everything, if we see tens of thousands of unemployed truckers,” Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole said last week, criticizing the government’s policy. He suggested that there could be “reasonable accommodations” such as periodic testing.

But a spokesman for Transport Minister Omar Alghabra’s office said Tuesday that the rapid spread of the worrying variant of Omicron is itself a major source of supply chain tension.

“With the number of cases increasing as a result of the Omicron variant, we are seeing an impact across the country and around the world in critical sectors that can lead to labor shortages, putting pressure on sectors such as transportation. We also know that vaccination is the best way to combat this pandemic, protect the health and safety of workers and keep our economy moving, ”the spokesperson said in a statement to Global News.

The Reuters source also said the federal government does not “anticipate significant disruptions or shortages for Canadians” as a result of the mandate.

The added impact of the vaccine’s mandate is already being felt in the North American market, Laskowski says, as logistics companies modify their schedules and plans around an impending driver shortage.

Some companies have been “very aggressive” in securing the meager truck deliveries before the outage, leaving some sectors and smaller players with long waits at the delivery docks.

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With fewer drivers on the road to deliver goods from the U.S., expect store shelves to be emptier in the near future, said Chris Jamieson, a spokesman for Westcore Links in Nisku, Alta, a village outside Edmonton. .

“Everything you get comes by truck. So if we have fewer drivers and fewer trucks on the road, their stores won’t fill up as quickly, ”he tells Global News, adding that the shortage is likely also contributing to inflation.

Most drivers are already fully vaccinated

Jamieson says the vast majority of employees at Westcore, a company with about 40 drivers, are fully vaccinated, with fewer than five to receive the vaccine. That’s well above provincial averages, with estimates putting the unvaccinated proportion of Alberta’s trucking workforce at 30 percent.

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Jamieson says he is confident that those at his company who have not been vaccinated will likely receive the vaccine in the future. Meanwhile, he says Westcore plans to accommodate those drivers by providing them with domestic trucking routes.

“We are not getting rid of them. They are good operators. They have been with us for a while. So we are not going to throw it away just because they haven’t done it yet, ”he said.

Westcore’s Lechie MacArthur has been a pilot for 40 years, eight of them in Canada. He says he is not vaccinated because he has not seen data to show that the inoculation will be effective against the transmission or contagion of the disease.

Health Canada says that two doses of mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna formulations, as well as a booster injection, are effective in preventing serious illness, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19.

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MacArthur says he is against the mandate, but is happy to run domestic routes in the meantime and believes that most of his peers share his opinion.

“They are here for work, because they want to be truck drivers. They don’t care if they drive in Canada or the United States, ”says MacArthur.

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Laskowski says the option to switch drivers to domestic routes may be a stopgap measure as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that all workers in federally regulated industries will eventually need to be vaccinated.

“That may be a very short-term solution… for these drivers. But the reality is that it is hoped that this option will not remain for long, ”he says.


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Also at Westcore, fully vaccinated driver Justin Chrobot says he believes his colleagues will have to make a “personal choice” if they won’t get the vaccine or risk losing their livelihood.

Once he looked at data from the US and Alberta showing the efficacy of the vaccine, he saw no reason not to get vaccinated.

“It just made sense to get the vaccine. I mean, the data shows that it prevents serious results, ”he says. “If you look at the cost of an ICU bed every day, it is a substantial amount, unsustainable for the government to pay for that.”

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Time, border protocols concern

Laskowski says the CTA is not against the mandate itself and supports efforts to increase vaccination across the industry.

“The problem is how we do it and the timing,” he said.

It’s likely too late to push back the deadline, especially as US officials have outlined plans to implement a similar mandate for truckers on their side of the border.

Now, he hopes to see clarification on the enforcement system in place at the border so that fully vaccinated drivers are not delayed on their routes.

Global News reached out to CBSA for details on how the vaccine protocols will be put into effect on Saturday, but received no response prior to publication.

– with files from Anne Gaviola, Dan Grummett, Reuters

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