Some truck drivers say tariffs and cross-border trade issues are affecting their bottom line

While politicians go back and forth about trade, it’s people on the ground who are feeling the pinch of tariffs and the trade war.

On Thursday, truckers were stopping at the weigh scales just north of Regina as part of an appreciation day put on by the Sask. Trucking Association.

Many of the truckers who stopped said the tariffs were impacting them a lot.

Read more:

• Tariffs add $1 million to Regina transit budget, other impacts unknown
• Sask. harvest 27 per cent complete, far behind long-term averages
• Distilleries to bear brunt of U.S. ban on Canadian booze: Experts

Tejvir Singh said he trucks across the U.S. border and when tariffs hit, they impact him quite a lot.

Previously, he said it would be fairly quick to get another load after dropping one off, but now he said they can be waiting a while to reload on either side of the border. He said waiting costs time and money.

“There’s nothing really that you can do, you have to wait for the load,” he explained.

Other drivers said there were fewer loads coming up from the U.S., so there was less work to be had, with one driver saying, “We are struggling a lot actually.”

A few drivers who stopped said they’re doing fine, but those were more often the drivers who didn’t go over the U.S. border and mostly worked in Western Canada.

Susan Ewart, executive director of the Sask. Trucking Association. Sept. 10. 2026 (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

Susan Ewart, executive director of the Sask. Trucking Association, said there’s been reduced freight capacity on the roads for the past year and a half — ever since trade with the U.S. started getting rocky.

As for the new tariffs, Ewart said it’s a “wait and see” situation.

On Monday, Canada’s counter-tariffs came into effect, in response to the recent U.S. 50 per cent tariffs on a number of Canadian goods. U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced even more tariffs in retaliation for Canada’s measures.