STILL OUR FIGHT

I'm Dave Hawke, a Calgary owner-operator. I paid for a full engine rebuild in May 2024; the engine failed catastrophically in March 2025, less than a year later. After a second rebuild and 26 workdays with no income, I lost my truck and trailers to repossession. I documented everything. I filed a $350,000 civil claim over the repair work. And when I wrote to all 337 MPs asking for help, the honest answer came back: there is no federal program for my situation. Not one.

I'm not just speaking for myself — I'm speaking for every owner-operator who has been through this, who went bankrupt, because of failed policies and no help. Behind every one of those numbers is a working family.

392 Canadian transportation and warehousing businesses went insolvent in the twelve months ending June 30, 2026 — 300 of them outright bankruptcies, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy. Sector insolvencies jumped 36% in a single quarter. That's more than one failure per day — and the official count doesn't include owner-operators who lose everything to equipment repossession without ever filing for bankruptcy. The real number is higher.

Owner-operators are small businesses. They haul the freight this country runs on. When they collapse, Canada loses irreplaceable skilled workers and freight capacity — and every Canadian pays more at the store.

We call on the federal government to:

1. Create an emergency bridge program — working-capital loans or grants — for owner-operators and small carriers facing equipment loss through mechanical failure or repossession;

2. Establish a formal support and referral path (not a dead end) for small carriers in financial distress, through Transport Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada;

3. Direct the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy to track repossession-driven carrier collapses, so the true failure rate is counted and can't be ignored.

No working Canadian should have to crowdfund their survival while their industry collapses around them. Sign and share.

— Dave Hawke, Bloodhound Trucking & Services Inc., Calgary Alberta Canada