16 MAY 2026 SERVICE TRUCK PULSE SERVICE TRUCK PULSE MAY 2026 17 WORKFORCE Canada’s heavy‑duty service sector is wrestling with a technician shortage that mirrors the United States in many ways—aging workers, declining apprenticeship enrollment, and increasingly complex equipment—but the symptoms don’t always look the same. In the US, the shortage is visible in packed bays, long repair queues, and fleets scrambling for uptime. In Canada, the picture is more uneven. Some shops are overwhelmed, while others appear strangely under‑utilized, even in regions with strong freight activity. That contrast has led many fleet managers to ask a fair question: If Canada has a technician shortage, why do some dealership shops look slow? The answer lies in how the Canadian service ecosystem is structured—and why the country’s technician gap is real, even if it doesn’t always resemble the US version. A SHRINKING PIPELINE—JUST LESS LOUDLY DISCUSSED, EH Across Canada, apprenticeship enrollment for truck and transport mechanics has been declining for years. Provincial labor‑market data shows a steady drop in new entrants since the late 2010s, with some regions reporting double‑digit percentage declines. The causes mirror the US: an aging workforce, Technician Shortage Looks Different North Of The Border Canada faces the same technician‑pipeline pressures as the US, but dealership culture and service‑network structure make the shortage harder to see. ANDREW JOSEPH, EDITOR PHOTO: welcomia/iStock/Getty Images Plus A diesel technician troubleshoots a Class 8 engine, illustrating the hands on expertise fleets are struggling to replace. WORKFORCE fewer young people entering the trades, and a growing mismatch between the technical demands of modern trucks and the number of qualified people available to maintain them. But recent changes in provincial educational thinking have eliminated the ability of trade colleges to attract talent from outside of Canada. Ontario’s ability to attract international students into skilled‑trades programs has been sharply reduced due to a combination of federal caps and provincial allocation rules that now prioritize universities and non‑trade programs. Beginning in 2024 and accelerating through 2025, the federal government imposed strict limits on study‑permit approvals, cutting Ontario’s international‑student intake by more than half and forcing the province to ration permits across institutions. Ontario responded by reserving the majority of its reduced allocation for master’s and doctoral programs, while career colleges received no applications at all, and public colleges were restricted to the same or fewer seats than the previous year. And all this was happening as the province issued TV commercials espousing the much-needed growth of the trades industry in Canada. The problem is that few Canadian students were listening. Number one, how many youth are actually watching TV in this day and age? Next to none. The messaging was lost. Thirteen Ontario colleges—including Conestoga, Fanshawe, Georgian, Lambton, Loyalist, Northern, and others—were ordered to significantly reduce international admissions, directly shrinking the pipeline of foreign students entering trades programs. These cuts were compounded by federal changes to post‑graduation work‑permit eligibility, which removed incentives for international students to enroll in many college‑level skilled‑trades programs. The result is that Ontario colleges—especially those offering truck and transport technician training—can no longer rely on international enrollment to fill classrooms, even as the province faces a growing shortage of heavy‑duty technicians. Classes that once had 22 foreign students of 25 total students in them were unable to continue when just three local applicants wanted to learn a trade. The left hand should check out what the right hand is doing, and consider working together. In Canada, independent repair centers, municipal fleet garages, and mobile service operations feel the shortage most acutely. They report difficulty hiring, rising labor costs, and increasing pressure to keep up with diagnostic requirements across multiple OEM platforms. In those environments, the shortage looks exactly like it does in the US: too many trucks, not enough techs, and no easy fix. But that’s not the whole picture. WHY SOME CANADIAN SHOPS LOOK SLOW—EVEN DURING A SHORTAGE A key difference between the two countries is the service‑center business model. In the US, large independent all‑makes shops and national service chains absorb a significant share of the repair market. They compete aggressively for fleet work, and their bays stay full. In Canada, the dealership network plays a more dominant role, and many OEM‑affiliated shops operate under narrower mandates. They often: • s ervice only the brands they sell or lease; • p rioritize warranty work; • f ollow OEM‑controlled labor‑rate structures; • l imit outside fleet work; • m aintain fixed staffing models regardless of local demand. The result is a paradox. A technician shortage exists, but some dealership shops don’t appear busy because they are not competing for the full market of repairable trucks. Their business model restricts what comes through the door. Independent shops, by contrast, rarely have that luxury. They take all‑makes work, they handle aging equipment long out of warranty, and they support fleets that can’t afford downtime. Those shops feel the shortage every day. GEOGRAPHY AMPLIFIES THE CONTRAST Canada’s population and freight corridors are more spread out than the US, and that affects how the shortage shows up. A dealership in a smaller market may have only a handful of bays and a limited technician roster. If that shop services only its own brand’s warranty work, it may not appear busy—even though the region as a whole lacks enough qualified technicians to support the total truck population. Meanwhile, independent shops in the same region may be booked solid for weeks. This geographic dispersion also affects apprenticeship intake. Rural and northern regions struggle to attract
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