The Federal Government has finalized the Exemptions from and Modifications to Hours of Work Provisions Regulations for the federally regulated road transportation, postal and courier, marine, and grain sectors. The final regulations will come into effect on February 1, 2022. Once in effect, our industry will be affected by these exemptions. Additionally, as of February 1, 2022, the Interpretation, Policies and Guidelines (IPG) 101 will no longer apply to the road transportation, postal, and courier sectors. This bulletin does not apply to provincially regulated employers.

On Dec 21, the National Post published an article that caught the attention of a lot of employers. The article found here tells how an Air Canada employee, who fell down her stairs, suffered a workplace injury and merited workers’ compensation. The employee was working her regular schedule from home and disconnected from her computer for lunch, located in her 2nd floor home office.

Commercial enforcement professionals from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba gathered via webinar Dec. 7 for a Western Canada Commercial Vehicle Out-of-Service (OOO) Trends webinar.

We are all familiar with seeing snowplows on Alberta roads and most of us are familiar with the adage “amber and red, snowplow ahead” and behind that is contractors and drivers on the road – sometimes 24/7 – ensuring driving conditions are as safe as possible.

On Dec 1, 2021, WCB announced the 2022 industry rates. The average industry rate will increase by 3 cents to $1.17 rather than $1.42, which would be required to cover the total forecasted claims cost for 2022. WCB will absorb the additional costs from its accident fund, to cover $265 million in employer premiums.

Workplace investigations can be highly stressful and carry a high degree of risk for an Organization if an investigation goes wrong. Employers need to be aware of those risks and plan any investigation accordingly. A critical decision that will help mitigate risk, is deciding who should conduct the investigation. Depending on the severity and/or seriousness of the incident an investigator could be Health & Safety, Human Resources, or a third party.

Every year, the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) celebrates the achievements of commercial transportation industry professionals who go above and beyond in their field.

BCTA stresses the best resource for real time specifics will always be Drive BC (www.drivebc.ca ). They will NOT be providing notice of real-time highway conditions as their provincial government is best positioned to do this.

On November 15, 2021, the federal and provincial governments announced an agreement to fund the expansion of accessible and affordable childcare. This is a game-changer for working families for several reasons. First, this program will reduce the childcare cost of families by up to half in early 2022 and to $10 a day within five years. Second, this should have a positive effect on the labor market, as many people who have opted to exit the labor market to take care of children for financial reasons may have the incentive to return to work.

While this page will be consistently updated to the best of our ability, the go-to resource for real-time updates and specifics is Drive BC

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) will be pressing Canadian and American authorities for more time to prepare for vaccine mandates recently announced by both countries for cross-border truck drivers.

In mid-November 2021, the Province of British Columbia experienced significant rainfall which caused widespread flooding and mudslides. As a result, all major highway and rail transportation corridors into and out of Vancouver, BC and the lower mainland were cut off from the rest of Canada, resulting in stranded travelers and delays of currently-unknown magnitude.

BCTA: As per our previous update, the best resource for real time specifics will always be Drive BC (www.drivebc.ca ). We will NOT be providing notice of real-time highway conditions as the provincial government is best positioned to do this.

Alberta Government: The $20-million Restrictions Exemption Program Implementation Grant is now open to all eligible businesses, cooperatives and non-profit organizations. In-scope small and medium-sized organizations may use the one-time funding as they see fit. Click to read full release.

On November 10, 2021, the provincial government opened the second intake of the Alberta Jobs Now Program (AJNP). The intent of this program is to support Albertans, including those with disabilities, to gain the right skills to find and maintain employment through on the job or formal training. This is accomplished by providing a subsidy to employers for 25% of a new hires annual salary up to $25,000, which ever is less. This increases to 37.5% or $37,500 when hiring people with disabilities. [1]

People in general want to be engaged at work. One of the tools we can use to do that is by providing meaningful investments in training. Unfortunately, employers often struggle to justify spending that kind of money on training. After all, training an employee costs the employer both money and time.

The 2022 COVID Audit Plan is in effect from January 1 to December 31, 2022.

-On-site data gathering activities by auditors is suspended until March 31, 2022:

-Internal maintenance auditors who are directed by their employer to remain on-site during the pandemic may continue to conduct on-site data gathering, however the Safe Auditing Guidelines for Auditors and Employers for On-Site Activities must be strictly followed.

CALGARY, Alberta – Pioneer Safety Solutions, Ltd. wishes to clarify a previous press

release dated September 1, 2021.

AMTA Board Chair Jude Groves submitted an op-ed to the Edmonton Journal chronicling the importance of drawing more people to careers as commercial drivers. Read the article in full here.

The 2021 Alberta Inspectors Challenge has concluded.

This year’s event was held at the Atmore Vehicle Inspection Station. The event usually takes place in conjunction with the AMTA Professional Truck Driving Championship (PTDC), however with restrictions surrounding public gatherings, PTDC 2021 was cancelled and the inspectors event moved to a smaller venue.