During a meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport held on January 28, 2026, Bloc Québécois MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval, who represents the riding of Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, introduced a motion calling for the President and CEO of Canada Post to appear before the committee.
“The Bloc Québécois is placing particular emphasis on the appearance of Canada Post’s CEO. Trucking companies have reported to us that they have lost contracts to businesses relying on low-cost drivers. On this issue, the Canadian Trucking Alliance had already alerted Minister Duclos in 2023, without any action being taken,” the Bloc Québécois told Truck Stop Canada in response to a request for comment.
Beyond the well-documented debate surrounding the use of low-cost drivers in the private sector, the motion raises broader questions when a Crown corporation such as Canada Post is involved. The initiative is framed as an effort to ensure transparency regarding subcontracting practices and the awarding of transportation contracts in a market under significant pressure.
The request comes at a time when Canada Post is experiencing particularly difficult financial and operational conditions. The Crown corporation reported a pre-tax loss of $541 million in the third quarter of 2025, the largest quarterly loss in its history, and a cumulative loss of nearly $1 billion over the first nine months of the year, significantly higher than during the same period in 2024. These results reflect a historic deterioration in performance, compounded by service disruptions linked to labour disputes and a sharp decline in parcel volumes, prompting some customers to turn to private alternatives.
Several stakeholders in the transportation industry argue that it is legitimate to question the role and decisions of a public enterprise when carriers report losing contracts to competitors offering substantially lower prices. While the low-cost driver phenomenon is primarily associated with the private sector, the effects of what some perceive as unfair competition can extend across the entire transportation supply chain, including public contracting authorities.
Mr. Barsalou-Duval’s motion is intended to allow the committee to obtain clear explanations from Canada Post’s senior management, in the interest of transparency and fairness, as the trucking industry has for years been calling for stronger enforcement of the rules and improved road safety.
The parliamentary study into the “Driver Inc.” scheme was initiated by the Bloc Québécois, with Mr. Barsalou-Duval playing an active role. As part of that study, numerous witnesses from the trucking industry were heard, along with individuals directly affected by systemic abuses, including road accident victims. These testimonies, often highlighting serious human and economic consequences, helped shed light on practices long denounced by industry stakeholders.
For many in the sector, this process represented one of the rare occasions when trucking-related concerns received a meaningful hearing at the federal level.
