Saskatchewan Class 1 driver exemption raises safety concerns, STA says
The Saskatchewan Trucking Association (STA) said it is “deeply concerned about the potential safety implications” of the newly announced exemption for Class 1 drivers in the province, effective May 21.
The exemption allows temporary foreign workers from jurisdictions with reciprocal agreements with the Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), employed in the agricultural sector, to operate Class 1 vehicles in the province for a period of 12 months using their home jurisdiction’s Class 1-equivalent licence.
While the STA acknowledges the importance of facilitating the labor needs of the agricultural industry, it expressed its reservations. “The absence of competency-based testing or experience requirements from the reciprocity jurisdiction raises significant safety concerns for all road users in Saskatchewan,” an STA news release said.
“Safety on our roads is paramount, and ensuring that all drivers, regardless of their origin, meet rigorous competency standards is essential for protecting lives and preventing accidents. The temporary nature of this exemption does not alleviate our concerns, as even a short-term compromise on safety standards can have long-lasting repercussions,” the release added.
“The safety of our roads and highways is non-negotiable,” said Susan Ewart, STA president. “While we understand the need to address labor shortages in the agricultural sector, we cannot compromise on safety. All drivers must demonstrate their ability to operate Class 1 vehicles safely through comprehensive testing and experience requirements.”
Agriculture industry’s labor requirements
Documents obtained by CBC News revealed the province is allowing foreign agriculture workers from 40 countries to drive on their home country’s licence for up to a year, until May 21, 2025, according to a news report.
Those countries include several European countries, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and Taiwan.
The STA urged the provincial government to reconsider the exemption and implement measures that prioritize safety without hindering the agricultural industry’s ability to access necessary labor.
“We remain committed to working collaboratively with all stakeholders to find solutions that balance the needs of the economy with the safety of our communities,” the STA said.
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Absolutely agree who are these idiots that think this is a good idea
Totally disgusted!!! After the horrible crash of the Humbolt hockey team you think that the driving regulations would be Stricker even more so. The driver said he basically had no training what so ever loaded. Learn from this mistake .
I live in BC and we almost have weekly semi accidents causing fatalities because of driver inexperience and speed. This sector is needing a overhaul as it is immigrant run with no training
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I agree but when I say the we are called racist and they say the industry can’t afford hourly pay at $28 for a driver with a 1 yrs experience or the cost of proper training
Do we want another Humboldt crash.
You want agri employees, pay overtime.
This not good thing to do have you read of all the accidents on Canadian and American highways do the inexperienced driver’s as they don’t follow rules of the highways as they can’t understand the English language. I don’t think they should be allowed to drive a truck with their countries license they should have to go for training in Canada as they have never driven in Canadian season been winter. So when one of those driver’s kills someone is SGI going tell the family it was SGI’s decision to let the driver drive without training in Canada
In northern Ontario in the month of May 2024 there we’re over 300 accidents involving truck’s with inexperienced drivers behind the wheel..so you at SGI don’t look into thing’s very good your going to let inexperienced driver’s from other countries drive in Saskatchewan with their license from another country so I guess the Humboldt accident didn’t teach you anything the driver admitted he had only been driving for two weeks he had NO experience at all
I agree.some form of training and testing needs to be done. From what I have seen other countries have smaller trucks. Mostly cube type not semitrailers and Btrain type units. I have driven large road equipment on the highways and experience and training is necessary.
Has the accident that injured and killed the Humboldt hockey players not taught us anything? Now we have a young man being deported. back to the country he came from because he was not trained to drive the semi with tandem trailers. We have several young people killed and injured unnecessary because of this. Does our government understand this? Are we a nation of idiots to except this?
Why would it be so hard to road test foreign drivers? Why wasn’t this issue addressed last fall instead of now? Weasley politicians presenting this as if they don’t have a choice when in reality they are doing the bidding of the powerful farm and agribusiness puppet masters. Shocking, just shocking (clutches pearls).
I, myself, am not a truck driver. But have been around semis for a long time. I don’t believe this should be allowed. It seems they’re allowing this because of a lot if whining. Ok, we may have a shortage of truck drivers. I would rather they take the course properly. It’s better to have late freight rather than increased incidents. It amost seems they’re implementing the “equality over experience.” Similar to what’s going on with airline pilots. Is the government willing to risk more lives in order to accomadate foreigners? Is this another ploy to get more votes? I truly don’t beleive farmers would risk their huge investments in the hands of improperly trained drivers. And doesn’t the government understand that law enforcement have enough on their plate for them to have to deal with more nonsense? I don’t think the government has thought this through properly. Foreign drivers should have their records looked before being allowed to drive in Sask. let alone Canada.
I feel that they should have to have a class 1 or aClass 1A for air brakes I went through the STA.for a course for a 1A I learnt alot also when driving a semi is a lot different then other vehicles. I feel that they should be trained properly and not by their own people they should have to go through a course.There I enough accidents on the road right now eith semis and I see a lot of them on their phones feet on the dash also so their curtains half closed on the drivers side
No wonder is so many and these people get away eith it and if it was me doing that driving a semi I would have a ticket plus probably get suspended. Thank you very much for letting me voice my opinion.
I see no problem in the decision made regarding Class 1 drivers from other countries. As long as their abstracts or driving history show no charges that apply to lack of safe handling of a vehicle. I agree there needs to a mechanism of testing to see if they can & do handle a vehicle accordingly to our requirements. However, this can be achieved by one day class training or book as required for a road test.
This is an outrage,I am a 28 year trucking veteran and I can say it’s getting more dangerous out there on the roads , not safer, why would the government of Saskatchewan go for something like this, we all know the safety protocols of a lot of them 40 countries does not meet our standards! Safe trucking folks
Why would the prov think that a class 1 from UK aust or new Zealand us equivalent to here in Canada they drive on the opposite side of the road . I have driven over there abmnd completely different than here.
I guess they have forgotten about the Humbolt tragedy!
I have been driving for 30 plus years, and it’s super scary out here. I pray I’m wrong, but a Humbolt incident is going to happen again!
Has the Saskatchewan government already forgotten the Humbolt tragic accident that claimed the lives of many?
Safety must not be compromised.
Thank god the Sask government is doing something sensible, any of the countries mentioned, especially European one have a far superior driving test system that the money grabbing joke that’s here in Canada.
These drivers are used to high levels of traffic ,and much higher speed limits than here in Saskatchewan.
What happened in Humboldt was a terrible tragedy, sololy the responsibility of the driver rolling a stop sign, have seen the same being done many times by local drivers.
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How about we see the whole list of countries before assumptions are made about the driving standards and skills of these imported drivers. And are you saying that because we currently have drivers in Canada now with poor skills it is OK to bring more in whose skills are unknown? Possibly lowering an already low bar doesn’t seem like the best choice.
First Covid,now unlicensed due to Canadian laws…please avoid all Prairie roads as many Country folks already have had incidents with some drivers hauling big loads .We still want to live not necessarily end up on the wrong side of the grass.Where has Canada’s COMMON SENSE GONE?Disgusting!
This is a load of crap. Since the Humbolt incident this government stated that all drivers go through a process to insure that thee re y are capable drivers. Mor are you trying to loose the next election because of this nonsense. Doctors that come from foreign countries have to do the Canadian medical exams, why not these hillbillies from wherever. Grab a brain.
SGI nor the government want driver testing because if they did over 95% of them would not pass. Then someone would have to foot the bill for driver training and that’s more time.
Maybe if trucking companies, especially grain hauling companies, would pay a decent wage, more people would do the job. Why do you think that a lot of the trucks are hauling frac sand in Alberta.
This is stupidity!!!!! Put everything back to where it was 10 years ago, where a class 1 cost 900 bucks…. where should poor FARMERS get such money…..if immigrants want Class 1,they should pay 13000!!!!!
If we need more drivers, let our homegrown Saskatchewan boys take the course for free to get their license. The farm boys have ran those semis around the farm for years before they got their license and are better than any foreign driver so we penalize them $15,000 to get their license.
Unfortunately the article doesn’t tell the whole story as to all that these farm businesses to through to get these foreign workers here and what qualifications they have to have. I had a meeting with the manager of a farm that hires temporary foreign workers out of necessity. I believe that this particular farm does a good job of vetting their people. I can’t speak for others. Personally, I have more confidence in someone coming from Europe or Australia with experience, and who share our values, than people who come from certain other parts of the world that don’t value life like we do. However, after saying this, I believe that they should have to at least pass the written tests before being given a permit to drive a commercial vehicle here. A road test would be ideal but do we have the logistics.
This is wrong there are lots of new truck drivers in Ont that would love to drive truck for a farmer or custom harvesting outfit in Saskatchewan. Many are unwilling to work for less than $24cd plus overtime hourly pay and would want $28cd to work the second growing season from April to November. In Saskatchewan they can get insurance for new drivers at a fair price
This is why I said we need many things changed to prevent bad crashes. This could result in a bad crash like the bus truck crash
As an imagrant from the UK 20 years ago, and having obtained my class 1a first of all in the UK, I can tell you from experience that the test I took in the UK is a lot harder to pass than the one in saskatchewan.
Since being in saskatchewan, I have not only driven in the worst weather this province has to throw at you and taught driver training in that and also the best there is, I can tell you that just because you pass a test here doesn’t make you an expert truck driver.
Everyone should have to abide by the the laws that have been put in place for everyone safety, insurance rates have gone up because of accidents, people not abiding by laws that have been put in to place for everyone safety, let’s face it, it’s the right thing to do is have these people take the test that is required for them to operate a motor vehicle in this province, especially a large vehicle of any type, don’t forget , you to have love one’s sharing the same highway .
Thus the powers to be that make these insane decisions should all be held accountable for the carnage this is going to cause on our roads..as a driver myself for the last 30plus years I have never felt so un safe an scared yes scared to drive on our roads as iam now .this is a insult to the professional driver take pride a saftey to be no 1. THIS WHOLE TRUCKING GIG HAS BECOME A EMBRASSMENT I FEEL THAT THE PEOPLE OF THIS PROVINCE AN COUNTRY NEED TO TAJE A STAND .WE HAVE A RT TO REFUSE UNSAFE WORKING CONDITIONS. THIS IS GOING TO MAKE OUR RDS A UNSAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL. I JUST WANT TO GET BACK TO MY LOVE ONES EVERYDAY.
First they need to be able to speak and read English.
Then they should pass a test like we all had to do to get our 1A in Saskatchewan.
Wow! How much more dangerous can you make our roads? A lot of the immigrants that are driving a car can’t even do that! We have some of the worse roads in winter and allowing someone, who has never seen snow, to drive on them when they’re not experienced, puts all of us in danger. Shake your head Moe, shake it hard!! Rethink this decision for the safety of us all.
If they came from a different country with a class 1 equivalent license, they should have no problem passing our test. So lets test them! They claim they don’t need our training so there should be no problem passing. Should they fail (the test) they should be required to then take ALL of Canada’s training before being allowed to test again.
I predicted a major incident such as the Humboldt catastrophe and met with an acquaintance who was involved with the S.T.A.
Afterwards I became involved with the M.E.L.T. program in Alberta and offered to teach in that realm. I am thankful to have participated in instructing 30 people with better than average knowledge and added my experience to the corriculum and safety of our highways. We DO NOT Agree with this absolute assinign idea. I have over 3 million verifiable accident free miles across 2 continents and consider myself extremely qualified to weigh in.
From personal experience, European drivers do not have the necessary skills for our country’s highways or of our techniques. Nor do they possess the knowledge of our laws and culture. Driving on different sides and Driving in packs aggressively is not what we need. Furthermore, this Government is opening itself up to carnage and law suits.
Irresponsibility is not safety.
RESPECT FOR OUR CITIZENS and the Motoring Public in general is paramount and cannot give way to anything less just to appease a notion to help foreign workers. They too need to test in a similar forum involving prerequisite screening such as a MELT PROGRAM..Mandatory Entry Level Testing and be able to identify in English. Period. I would be willing to ride along and verify their abilities. I’ll bet that they won’t meet our expectations.
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I agree with you if this is happening should be required to drive 1 month with driver 10 years plus experience then do canadian road test to see if they are qualified enough then can wein out bad apples 4 weeks in
I believe that they should have to go through the tests just like everyone else
that wants that license. There is too many accidents now with foreign people driving semis and I believe that their class 1 isn’t like our class 1.
Follow the money trail, this is all about how much they can save by paying temporary foreign workers a substandard wage & getting government grants at the same time. There is no shortage of drivers or trucks in fact there are way to many trucks on the road for the freight that’s avaliable. Look at the Driver Inc model that is plaguing this industry. Too many carriers not operating legally & this will just make things worse. These drivers will not just be working on the farm, they will be taking jobs from drivers in this country.
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Well said many of these drivers are foreign students that can a piece of paper from another country for about $500 U S that says they can pass a English course or can drive a commercial truck. I have talked to people when I was in Turkey to help bring some people that helped out the military come to Canada. They drive much differently and use a different value system and wages and working conditions are much worse. It is the same for drivers from Cuba and mechanics. It doesn’t mean we should not bring them in just we need a graduate license permit program and some restrictions.
As a class one driver for 20 years now they should not be just coming here to drive by themselves requirements should be they are driving with an experienced class one say 8 years and up for thr first 4 weeks of employment then do a canadian class one road test to see if they pass canadian minimum regulations of the road not just come and drive I am against them coming to jump in a truck
Wow apparently they didn’t learn nothing from the Humboldt crash nothing like going backwards.. So glad I retired when I did, all these foreigner drivers ( if u want to call them drivers) are mostly in the ditch or rolled over but hey let’s let that slide so u can still operate a missile dwn the road and potentially kill someone..