U.S. Pres. Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may agree on vaccines, but mandating truck drivers take the shot has drawn fierce opposition.
Reports indicated that Trudeau had softened on a policy to require returning Canadian truckers to show proof of vaccination or quarantine. After pushback from organizations such as the Canadian Trucking Alliance and worry over 30-year inflation escalating, sidelining upwards of 20 percent (32,000) border-crossing truckers seemed off the table. But after the U.S. remained determined to implement a similar mandate, Trudeau pushed the issue.
“The U.S. is moving forward in coming days with an identical mandate to ensure truckers are vaccinated. We are aligned with them. We know how important it is to ensure the free flow of goods and services,” Prime Minister Trudeau reportedly said. “Trucking companies, logistics companies, have known since November that this was coming.”
Canada’s truckers responded with slow-moving border conveys that log-jammed traffic. Upwards of 30 rigs recently impeded the Emerson, Manitoba, crossing after Trudeau’s apparent reversal was announced. A much larger convey protest was reportedly underway the week beginning Jan. 23 as CDL professionals launched the Freedom Convoy 2022. A go-fund-me effort promptly garnered more than $2.2 million to fight the mandate, and a large convoy is reportedly being organized to drive on Ottawa.
After the Biden Administration suffered a stinging vaccine mandate loss at the U.S. Supreme Court, expectations were that the cross-border policy would wane. Despite 40-year-high inflation and supermarkets struggling to remain stocked, the White House kept the potentially unconstitutional policy in place. America’s highest court already ruled that the president and his proxies could not punish private-sector workers for not undergoing a medical procedure. Biden remained committed to having the U.S. Department of Homeland Security require all foreign nationals and truck drivers entering the country to show proof of vaccination.
“Trucking is the largest mode of surface trade with Canada; every day, there are approximately 14,000 total truck entries along the U.S.-Canada border hauling more than $846 million of goods. Any disruptions to the continuity of U.S.-Canada trade would likely have far-reaching consequences that extend beyond our shared border,” a letter signed by 14 U.S. Senators to Joe Biden reportedly states. “Despite the good intentions underpinning this action, we fear that the imposition of vaccination mandates as a requirement to cross the land border will exacerbate the existing challenges facing our freight networks and supply chain, and could further fuel inflation and rising prices on top of what Americans are already seeing. Our nation’s truck drivers worked diligently during the pandemic to facilitate critical cross-border freight movements that helped to feed and clothe American communities. Now, implementing these policies could cost them their jobs.”
On both sides of the border, trucking industry leaders and dissenting government officials urged Trudeau and Biden to loosen restrictions for truckers. During the height of the pandemic, both countries leaned on cross-borders loads to keep communities afloat.
Sources: trucknews.com, reuters.com
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