View From the Legislature

Every year, across Canada and North America, National Trucking Week is celebrated during September. This year, the week is September 5th to the 11th.

The week is dedicated in Canada to the more than 400,000 professional drivers who spend their day moving freight across North America. These men and women are responsible for ensuring that the goods that Canadians rely upon are delivered to stores and homes across the nation. This is always important work but has been especially important during the past 18 months when supply chains have at times been delayed and disrupted. During these times the role of the trucking industry has been greater than ever.

The trucking industry has always been a significant economic contributor to Manitoba. Historically, there have been many long-established trucking firms including right here in southeast Manitoba. Partly because of history and partly because of its central location, many Manitobans are employed because of the trucking industry. In our province alone there are more than 28,000 people who are directly employed in the trucking industry. In addition, there are thousands more jobs in associated industries like warehousing. All told, the industries combine to make up more than 5% of the provincial labour force representing about $2 billion of economic contribution to Manitoba’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Manitoba is a province that relies greatly upon trade with other provinces and with the United States. More than $8.5 billion of our provincial exports are to the United States. Every year, about 400,000 commercial trucks cross the Canada-United States border. Remarkably, even though the U.S. border has been closed to Canadians for more than a year, the commercial traffic between our countries has continued almost without interruption. This is a testament to the men and women in the trucking industry as well as the strong nature of the economic ties between our two nations.

While the importance of the trucking industry is as great as it ever was, the nature of the industry has changed significantly over the past decades. Increased requirements for record keeping and regulations have made the job safer but also more demanding. These are added to the difficulties that the job of professional driver has always had, including significant time away from home and family.

Individual trucking companies and the Manitoba Trucking Association will be once again marking National Trucking Week with their own activities. Each of us individually can remember every day that the things that we depend on and often take for granted are brought to us through the work of professional drivers. Thank you to all Manitobans involved in the trucking industry. We are grateful for your service and wish you many safe and rewarding miles ahead.