Canadian truckers exempted from jab mandate

The federal government is backing down from its vaccine mandate for Canadian truckers three days before it was set to take effect.

Ottawa announced in midNovember that truck drivers crossing into Canada would need to be fully vaccinated by this Saturday.

But on Wednesday evening Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson Rebecca Purdy told The Canadian Press that Canadian big-riggers will not have to quarantine if they are unvaccinated or have received only one dose.

The news came as a surprise to Canadian Trucking Alliance president Stephen Laskowski, who says industry representatives met with government officials as recently as midday Wednesday and were told the mandate was still on track for Saturday.

Trade associations on both sides of the border had been pushing for a delay to the restriction, which they say would put strain on supply chains amid the latest COVID-19 surge and severe worker shortages.

The new rule will still take effect for American truckers, who will be turned away at the border unless they’ve been inoculated starting this weekend.

About 10 per cent of the 120,000 Canadian truckers who traverse the border may not have been able to work those routes because they haven’t been jabbed, according to the trucking alliance.

The Canada Border Services Agency declined to say whether the truck drivers’ exemption is temporary or indefinite, or what prompted the change.

The vaccine mandate had already started to impact trucking operations.

“There are many of our members who have already said they will not be dispatching unvaccinated drivers across the border,” Laskowski said.

Transport companies never opposed the vaccine mandate; “it’s the timing of it,” he said, citing supply-chain pressure points ranging from clogged ports to sick workers and inflation.