Western Standard - February 20, 2024


Supporting women in the trucking industry

Topics
women trucking training funding
Mentioned
Devin Drieschen David
Furthering reconciliation through emergency shelter $3 85 million fund for emergency care in Alberta communities

Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

156.2

Word count

1,891

Sentence count

52

Harmful content

Misogyny

11

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, Devan Dreshen, and Minister of Arts, Culture, and Status of Women, Carol Moen, discuss the Government of Alberta's $3 million grant to Women Building Futures to expand training opportunities for women pursuing careers as professional truck drivers.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 We're here today hosting Women Building Futures and an exciting announcement from the Government of Alberta.
00:00:07.000 To give that announcement, I'd like to introduce the Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, Devin Dreshen.
00:00:15.000 He's going to come up and share the announcement.
00:00:21.000 Well, thank you so much, David, for that introduction.
00:00:24.000 And thank you so much to Care and Transportation for hosting us here today.
00:00:29.000 I know we're going to do a tour later, but such an important trucking industry here in Alberta.
00:00:34.780 And this announcement, I think, will go a long way in making sure that we can attract more drivers and more truckers here in Alberta.
00:00:41.700 So the commercial trucking industry plays a critical role in strengthening Alberta's supply chain and contributing to our provincial economy.
00:00:49.380 Now more than ever, drivers are needed in the sector to help get Alberta products to market and to ensure that everyday goods and services get delivered on time.
00:01:00.360 And I'm happy to share that Alberta's government is providing nearly $3 million in grant funding over two years to Women Building Futures to expand training opportunities for women pursuing careers as professional truck drivers.
00:01:14.080 The funding will help Women Building Futures provide programming to train and to connect drivers with trucking companies.
00:01:22.220 Now, this investment demonstrates our government's commitment to support the commercial trucking industry in Alberta through skills training and employment grants.
00:01:30.760 This funding is part of the government's overall $40 million commitment over four years, starting last year, for training grants to address skilled worker shortages in the trucking sector.
00:01:43.120 Now, currently, there are more than 4,000 trucker vacancies in Alberta.
00:01:46.280 This represents about 20% of the total vacancies across Canada.
00:01:51.120 And Women Building Futures will play a role in helping to address these shortages. 0.98
00:01:56.800 And for over 25 years, Women Building Futures has supported women in industries where they are traditionally underrepresented.
00:02:04.340 Thousands of graduates have benefited from Women Building Futures Programming and have gone on to
00:02:09.060 pursue fulfilling jobs in a variety of industries across the province. Now, while today's announcement
00:02:14.740 will help attract new professional drivers to the sector, it's not the only thing that we're
00:02:19.380 working on to address Alberta's trucker shortage. Alberta's government is committed to better
00:02:24.260 understand the barriers for prospective Class 1 drivers and to develop innovative ways to remove
00:02:30.500 these barriers so to conclude i'd like to thank women building futures for their great work
00:02:35.460 they have done to help reduce labor shortages in the trucking industry including providing
00:02:39.940 access to mentorship coaching and training that will help prepare women for well-paying jobs
00:02:45.140 in this sector and now i'd like to invite minister fur alberta's minister of arts
00:02:49.380 culture and the status of women to the podium thank you very much
00:02:52.180 thank you minister duration and good morning everyone thank you as minister duration said
00:03:03.700 to to care and transportation systems for hosting us today it's great to be here for this exciting
00:03:09.140 announcement this is fantastic news for women building futures for women in commercial trucking
00:03:16.100 and great news for women looking for well-paying quality career opportunities in alberta
00:03:22.180 This grant will enable Women Building Futures to expand their training opportunities for women pursuing careers in commercial transportation, to help them develop the skills, confidence, and networks to get the jobs they want.
00:03:35.580 As Minister of Arts, Culture, and Status of Women, ensuring that women in Alberta have access to quality and fulfilling careers is one of my main priorities.
00:03:45.380 And that means supporting women's participation in fields where they are underrepresented. 1.00
00:03:49.560 By supporting women entering commercial transportation, we provide a tremendous opportunity to help address labour shortages in this critical sector.
00:03:59.640 Supporting women in underrepresented fields creates opportunities and stimulates growth in sectors like commercial transport and beyond.
00:04:07.620 Now more than ever, diversity in commercial transportation is essential to the success of the sector.
00:04:14.280 alberta's government is also supporting women and girls to break into sectors that they are
00:04:18.680 traditionally underrepresented in through other avenues through the person's case and women in 0.66
00:04:23.880 stem scholarships we're helping women and girls break down barriers in stem fields of study and
00:04:29.560 employment i would like to thank women building futures and carol moen for working to address
00:04:35.400 these challenges and opportunities and helping women get the well-paying and in-demand work they 0.97
00:04:41.000 deserve and desire together let's continue to ensure that women are recognized as skilled 1.00
00:04:46.280 workers in the trades and transportation sectors it's good for women the economy for our families
00:04:53.000 and communities because when women thrive alberta thrives thank you and i'd now like to invite
00:04:59.240 carol mohan from women building futures to say a few words
00:05:01.880 Hello, everyone, and good morning. Minister Duration, thank you so much for this Alberta
00:05:12.580 investment in really important work that's not going to only help more women move into the 1.00
00:05:18.120 professional driver's seat, but it's also going to help us keep them there. Minister Fur, thank you
00:05:23.660 for your passion, your continued commitment to truly trying to see women more fully represented
00:05:30.160 across the Alberta economy. Women Building Futures is proud to stay at the forefront of leading
00:05:36.240 change for women entering resilient careers in transportation and trades related industries.
00:05:43.440 By partnering with transportation training partners and employers who work hard to make
00:05:48.720 inclusive workspaces and with really tremendous support for those partnerships ultimately from
00:05:54.800 the government of Alberta. We are going to see more women driving to an economically secure future 0.98
00:06:01.040 and at the same time help to address the critical resource shortages in the transportation industry.
00:06:07.200 We understand the need to keep people and goods moving. This is a really critical time
00:06:12.320 to invest in this industry. There are more than 20,000 vacant truck driver positions across Canada
00:06:20.400 which is we've been told will grow to 30 000 if if no action is taken at wbf our mission is
00:06:28.080 economic security for women careers in commercial transportation provide exceptional opportunities 0.98
00:06:34.560 for women to reach financial independence we recognize the need to continue to eliminate 1.00
00:06:40.640 barriers for women in all underrepresented groups enabling them to safely access effective pathways
00:06:47.520 to truly life-changing careers as professional drivers this grant plays a pivotal role in helping
00:06:54.880 wbf break down those barriers and encourage more women to explore career opportunities 0.89
00:07:00.960 in transportation it supports awareness campaigns to open the minds of more women thinking about
00:07:07.440 the career training to build the skills and confidence needed for them and ultimately it
00:07:13.840 also allows us to engage in a significant way with partners who are truly committed to safe and
00:07:20.480 inclusive work environments that not only support our grads but all diverse people in that industry.
00:07:27.600 We've seen how the transportation industry has provided exceptional opportunities for our
00:07:32.240 graduates like Sierra who you'll hear from shortly and we look forward to providing this free
00:07:38.560 training for more women to achieve thriving careers as commercial drivers in bar in march 1.00
00:07:44.720 we're welcoming our first 12 professional class one driving students funded through this new
00:07:51.120 government of alberta grant and we are also in the process of opening up registrations for a june
00:07:57.200 cohort as well too at wbf our focus extends beyond preparing women for the industry we're also
00:08:04.720 committed to getting the industry more ready for women and helping create an industry ultimately
00:08:10.880 that women and other diverse people are going to want to stay in a critical component of our work
00:08:15.920 is the partnerships that we nurture with government community organizations and also
00:08:21.280 the private sector particularly our employers of choice these employers are instrumental in driving
00:08:28.800 more inclusive workplaces for women and will eventually help influence positive culture change
00:08:34.960 across the entire industry we continue to share learnings and experience to drive change and
00:08:41.040 support employer partners and stakeholders in nurturing safe and equitable workplaces
00:08:47.120 ultimately assisting all the all of those companies on their dei journey we honor our partnership
00:08:52.960 with the government of alberta we also want our partnership with our industry partners
00:08:57.840 We're happy to be joined today by many of our employers of choice partners who have been our
00:09:02.720 champions for more inclusive workplaces for some time. At Women Building Futures, our partners are
00:09:08.960 truly the secret behind our success in lifting the potential of women and continuing to remove 1.00
00:09:15.040 barriers for women on their paths to economic security. I now want to introduce you to Sierra
00:09:20.560 Elebert. Good morning. In 2019, I was working a job in search of a career to last me a lifetime.
00:09:35.200 I'd always been intrigued by the trucking industry and knew that I needed to find a way to get my foot
00:09:39.600 in the door. At the time, I struggled financially and knew that I would never be able to afford to
00:09:44.480 get my class one license on my own. And even if I did, who would give me the opportunity
00:09:49.600 to work without any experience on the job this was when a friend of mine mentioned wbf and i
00:09:56.640 started to look into it further excited and energized about the possibility of finally
00:10:01.440 moving forward i began my research to learn what i could about the industry and how to get a seat
00:10:06.400 on the program i was accepted into the year of 2020 professional class one driving program with wbf
00:10:14.240 and i knew that my life would be forever changed of course 2020 came with many hurdles in itself
00:10:20.160 but it paid off in the end throughout the course we learned more about the industry sponsors and
00:10:27.200 what working in this career would be like towards the end of the program we began interviews with
00:10:33.600 our sponsoring companies and i kept thinking how does it get any better than this we have
00:10:38.800 reputable companies willing to help us bridge the gap when it came to gaining experience
00:10:42.880 In September 2020, I started my career with Karen Transportation Systems.
00:10:48.640 With the full support of WBF behind me, I began in the Awash Bay, gaining confidence with parking,
00:10:54.240 pulling and backing the trailers. After a couple months, I was lined up with a driver trainer
00:10:59.520 and began learning on the road. I became familiar with the obstacles and challenges that truckers
00:11:04.640 face on a daily basis. I learned how to chain up, how to back up a B train and safely unload and
00:11:09.680 load chemicals. It didn't take me long to realize that I found a career and a company to last me a
00:11:15.280 lifetime. With so much room to grow and an ever-increasing demand for class one drivers,
00:11:20.480 I look forward to seeing many more women be given the opportunity of a lifetime that I received. 0.74
00:11:25.840 It changed my life more than I could ever describe and I know it'll change many more.
00:11:29.360 okay we'll now move on to questions from the media so we'll start with reporters here in
00:11:40.320 the room and then move on to the phone lines please state your name and outlet and we will
00:11:44.320 do one question one follow-up so uh first question please the mic is just right over there
00:11:50.240 okay seeing no questions in the room we're gonna go to the phone lines operator can you
00:11:53.520 please put through the first caller there are no questions on the line at this time
00:11:59.360 Oh, last call for questions here in the room.
00:12:03.360 Okay, thank you very much, everyone.
00:12:05.360 Okay, thanks.