The Ontario government has introduced changes to the Ontario
Immigration Act, 2015 to include a new immigration stream for
transport truck drivers, in which individuals
intending to work in this occupation and live in Ontario may now
qualify to apply to the province for support in obtaining permanent
residence status in Canada. This is a welcome response to
Canada's long-haul truck driver shortage crisis.
Driver Shortages
The current market conditions twinned with the shortage of
long-haul drivers has been causing a severe lack of capacity for
the carriage of goods, increased shipping costs, and less favorable
terms for Canadian shippers, importers and exporters. This crisis
has been plaguing the industry in both Canada and the US for the
last 15 years, and reached a new high in the US last year,
accordingly to Bob Costello, chief economist for the American
Trucking Association.1 Costello indicated that the US
needed 60,800 more drivers than were actually available