'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
The main trucking lobbies in Canada and the United States are warning that vaccine and testing requirements for workers will further disrupt supply chains because there is already a dire shortage of drivers.
Canada will require vaccines for truck drivers starting in January, while the Biden administration has issued rules requiring truck drivers at companies with 100 or more employees to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.
More than two-thirds of goods traded between Canada and the United States travels on roads and highways. For most of the pandemic, truckers crossed the border regularly as they were considered essential workers to keep supply chains flowing.
"We know that there already is disruption in the supply chain; this is going to intensify it," said Stephen Laskowski, president and chief executive of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), which represents some 4,500 carriers.
It estimates that 10-20 per cent, or between 12,000-22,000 of Canadian truck drivers, and 40 per cent, or some 16,000 of U.S. truck drivers traveling into Canada would be sidelined if the requirement begins.
"This is not a trucking issue. This is a Canada-U.S. economic issue," Laskowski told Reuters, adding about 70 per cent of that C$650 billion (US$507 billion) U.S.-Canada trade moves by truck.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA), together with others, is seeking to block U.S. President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate in court.
A U.S. appeals court issued a temporary stay last month blocking the requirements. The court found "all else equal, a 28 year-old trucker spending the bulk of his workday in the solitude of his cab is simply less vulnerable to COVID-19 than a 62-year-old prison janitor."
The Justice Department has asked another court to throw out the temporary stay, and a decision could come as soon as mid-December.
Supply chain problems caused by the pandemic has contributed to inflation in both countries rising to decades high.
"Given the nature of our industry and makeup of our workforce, (it) could have devastating impacts on the supply chain and the economy," ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said in a statement.
In written comments filed with the Labor Department, the ATA said the nation's motor carriers could lose up to 37 per cent of their drivers to "retirements, attrition to smaller carriers and/or conversion to independent contractor owner-operators."
Motor carriers move 70 per cent of all U.S. freight tonnage.
Laskowski said there are already 18,000 job vacancies for truck drivers in Canada and he is pushing to delay the Jan. 15 deadline to give companies more time to deal with the situation.
Canada's Transport, Health and Trade ministries did not comment when asked whether truckers would be given more time.
A Transport Ministry spokesman said it encourages "all Canadian industries to develop COVID-19 vaccination requirements for their employees."
Despite the potential disruptions, some 70 per cent of Canadians support Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's strict mandates, according to an EKOS Research poll.
"We'll be seeing shortages of goods in stores" if the vaccine requirement deadline is not delayed, said Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
($1 = 1.2826 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa and David Shepardson in Washington Editing by Marguerita Choy)
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.