PM urged to slow vaccine rule

Groups ask trucker mandate be eased to clear supply chain block

Business leaders are urging Ottawa to ease vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers to relieve the congested supply chain with the United States.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended Monday the mandate as a necessary step to keep supply chains open, arguing that COVID-19 itself is the biggest risk to Canada’s economy.

In statements, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Manufacturing Coalition both urged him to back down.

Perrin Beatty, the president of the Chamber, said that while “we strongly favour getting as many people vaccinated as possible,” the government should allow more time before imposing the mandate on truckers. “Until now, governments have considered truckers to be providing an essential service, which has kept supply chains functioning even during the most serious waves of the pandemic,” Beatty said But Beatty said the government hasn’t produced statistics that show that truckers are a major source of infections in Canada.

Neither Health Minister JeanYves Duclos nor Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam were able to provide any data about COVID-19 and truck drivers when asked last week at the House of Commons health committee.

“If the government has such figures and has been concerned that they pose a particular threat, they should have had an educational program directed specifically at them long before now and they could have worked with the provinces and industry to set up mobile vaccination clinics near border crossings and truck stops throughout Canada,” said Beatty.

The Canadian Manufacturing Coalition called for a full reversal of the vaccine mandate after meeting Friday with Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.

Dennis Darby, the president of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters which chairs the coalition, told Champagne that “Canadians are seeing empty shelves” because vaccine mandates are making supply chain bottlenecks worse.

Trudeau says getting vaccinated is the most important way to keep Canada's economy going and says the Conservatives are "fearmongering" about empty store shelves.

Unvaccinated Canadian drivers also won't be able to return to the United States for now as the U.S. imposed its own vaccine mandate for truckers on Saturday.

Trudeau says getting vaccinated is the most important way to keep Canada's economy going