Protect Nova Scotia’s Independent Truckers – Stop the Termination of the 80/20 Agreement

1,500 truck drivers’ livelihoods — along with countless jobs in related trades and services — are now in jeopardy.

On August 13, 2025, Fred Tilley, Minister of Public Works, issued a letter announcing that the long-standing 80/20 agreement will be terminated at the end of 2025. This decision was made without input from the very people who keep our roads built and maintained: Nova Scotia’s truckers.

The 80/20 agreement, established in 1994, requires that 80% of the trucks used for provincial road-building come from local businesses, with the remaining 20% supplied by contractors. For more than 30 years, this arrangement currently supports over 500 small business owners — from single-truck operators to family-run fleets — all members of the Truckers Association of Nova Scotia (TANS), which has been serving our province for over 50 years.

Ending this agreement will:

• Put nearly 500 small businesses and self-employed drivers out of work.
• Cause families across Nova Scotia to lose their livelihoods.
• Dismantle the Truckers Association, eliminating jobs that coordinate trucking operations and support local drivers/owners.
• Trigger a devastating ripple effect for local heavy-duty repair shops, parts suppliers, and other local, small businesses that depend on truckers.

Let’s be clear: there is no viable plan in place to replace the independent drivers who do this work every day. Government and contractors don’t have their own fleets to step in. We’ve all seen what happens when local expertise is pushed aside — cheap, temporary labour is brought in, undercutting both the workers already here and the newcomers promised stable opportunities.

This isn’t just about truckers. This is about protecting our local economy, our jobs, and our communities. If the 80/20 agreement is terminated, Nova Scotia will not only lose hundreds of businesses and jobs — we’ll lose decades of knowledge, coordination, and commitment to keeping this province moving.

We urge the Government of Nova Scotia to reverse this decision and keep the 80/20 agreement in place.

Sign today to stand with Nova Scotia’s independent truckers.