by: Pash Brar
I went to an annual general meeting. A gentleman joined my table, and he explained he had been in Canada three years and was struggling to make a living. He thought it was a dream to live in Canada, but it was like that at all in reality. He said his friend in trucking was even worse off than him because he had paid a large sum for the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). He agreed to put me in touch with his trucking friend. What I am going to tell you is the true story of what a trucking firm in Surrey, BC is doing to its drivers.
The trucker called me and advised he had paid the trucking company $23,500 for his LMIA. On the LMIA, it was written he will be paid $27.50 an hour. He had lost a business in India, then lived in Dubai for three years, then California for another three years. His visa in the USA was going to run out, but he heard about the LMIA program to Canada. He paid most of his savings to come to Canada and thought it would be a dream with a good income and a good life. He was sadly mistaken.
His employer promised him 26 cents a mile. This is well below the minimum wage. This also nowhere near the amount written on the LMIA. He started at 20 cents, then worked up to 22 cents, and now at 24 cents per mile. He is a team driver and complained that some of his teammates don’t bathe and smelled, and the mattress in the cab was at times covered with bugs and yellowed. The teammates didn’t use a sheet on the bed, so they contaminated the mattress. Often the teammates won’t use a proper washroom even though there’s one only a few feet away. He said his teammates drive rough and he fell from the bed from a sudden intentional jolt and hurt his back. He now has a slipped disc and when he told the employer they refused to file a claim with WCB or return his calls.
The trucker said he is often sent very far away, like Florida, and not given a back haul for over a week. His company won’t pay his expenses and leave him stranded for a week or more unpaid. Since no back haul is found, he is forced to drive back empty but not paid. That is about 3,250 – 4,000 miles away and zero pay. The company trucks he uses need repair; the seats are damaged, crooked, and uncomfortable. His employer told him not to email them about complaints, and if he calls, they will not speak to him after repeated requests. He said that most of the other drivers didn’t speak any English, so they could not read or interpret what was on the pay statements. If he calculated what was owed on his pay statement, he was always paid several hundred dollars less than owed, and the other drivers didn’t even know they were being under paid.
Another driver in the firm, also under LMIA, had an accident when the truck slipped in the snow. The employer demanded compensation for the damage and negotiated $6,500 was owed, after initially demanding over $10k. This was after the gentleman had already paid about $25,000 for his LMIA. He is in poverty and cannot leave this firm because he will not be able to work anywhere else without a new permit, nor can he apply for a new permit because he cannot speak or read English very well.
I feel bad about how these drivers are being treated. The false stories of Canada being the land of the rich with pots of gold at the bottom of the rainbow, couldn’t be further from the truth. These truckers paid a lot of money to be in Canada, and what they paid is actually half of what I’ve heard others have paid. I did tell him, “You got a good deal and came here cheap. It’s usually $50,000.” These drivers are paying to come to Canada and being taken advantage of once they arrive by being paid incredibly low wages, well below poverty level. With housing prices so high and no savings, they have no hope of buying a home and living the so-called dream. After listening to his story for an hour, I told him with sincerity; go back to where he is happy. Go back to Dubai. Save up money for a year and go back. Why be miserable and abused by dishonest people, when you can be happy somewhere else? A mistake was made by coming to Canada. Accept the mistake, move on, and find happiness where you are valued and appreciated. I know the LMIA program is being overhauled by the government, and I hope it protects innocent people who came with a dream, only to lose hope.
