The task force’s final report contains 21 recommendations aimed at easing congestion in Canada’s ports, filling labour shortages and improving employee retention.
Some of what is said is a reminder of Freedom Convoy blockages at Windsor and in Alberta.
Among the report’s short-term recommendations is a call to expand the 30-kilometre rail interswitch distance across Canada — a move meant to give shippers more options to move goods by rail on one company’s track before switching to another for the longer haul.
The report recommends Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan “urgently convene a council of experts to develop a new collaborative labour relations paradigm that would reduce the likelihood of strikes, threat of strikes, or lockouts that risk the operation or fluidity of the national transportation supply chain.”
The Teamster’s Union doesn’t like that, but agrees that more should be done to recruit and retain truck drivers.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said Oct. 6 the government will now move to develop a National Supply Chain Strategy, which “will be informed by the recommendations included in the task force’s final report.”
The Teamsters Union said “free collective bargaining is not an impediment to supply chain continuity, but this report suggests otherwise,” Teamsters Canada president Francois Laporte said
