Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) have entered into a data-sharing agreement to coordinate enforcement efforts in the federally regulated road transportation sector, focusing on combating the Driver Inc. scheme.
The initiative, included in Budget 2024, aims to strengthen compliance measures introduced in 2022 to address tax avoidance and worker misclassification in the trucking industry.
In the coming months, ESDC and CRA will outline the specific data to be shared between the two agencies, identify any privacy concerns, and establish the legislative framework necessary to implement these agreements. The agreement is expected to enhance ongoing compliance activities and enforcement in the trucking sector.
“With your ongoing support and efforts, we continue our fight against unfair labor practices to help ensure workers receive the protections they are entitled to under the Canada Labor Code, while taking the necessary enforcement actions to ensure both payers and workers meet their tax obligations under the Income Tax Act,” ESDC said in a Sept. 11 announcement.
“This agreement indicates a new level of heightened enforcement among these two key agencies to battle the sprawling underground economy, which is devastating our industry. This is an important step which will help support promises government has made to end the widespread labor and tax abuse in our sector,” said Canadian Trucking Alliance president Stephen Laskowski in a release. “We look forward to seeing this process completed and for these efforts to be deployed in the field to end these unscrupulous practices nation-wide.”
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