TORONTO — While Canada’s largest publicly held carriers went on what amounted to a buying spree in 2011, don’t expect it to continue into the latter half of 2012. There will be some M&A action (notably in the bulk business) but the midnight-madness sale seems to be over.

In a broadly ranging panel discussion held Wednesday in a 40th floor boardroom overlooking Lake Ontario in the headquarters of RBC Capital Markets, TransForce CEO Alain Bedard, Contrans Group CEO Stan Dunford, Trimac CEO Ed Malysa and Murray Mullen of Mullen Enterprises shared some of their strategies and predictions with analysts.

The main theme: they expect 2012 to be a year of minor non-dramatic growth and any buying they do will be surgically strategic. And TransForce, the biggest buyer of all, will probably hold off on major purchases until it turns around its recent big buy, Loomis, which TransForce purchased in 2011. (At the time of the purchase, Loomis, with 2,500 employees, reported a quarterly loss of $3.1 million.)

“We grew at the top level by one billion last year by acquisitions,” Bedard told the analysts, “In 2012 there is not going to be that kind of acquisition.” TransForce’s other major purchase was this year’s buyout of the privately held Quik X, with about 600 employees.

Dunford said that Contrans purchases smaller fleets for sustainability and not as a growth strategy, and the carrier’s most recent purchase — that of MacKinnon Transport — was done solely as a driver-hiring scheme. “We bought MacKinnon because they had 80 owner operators and drivers.”

The one company that might come calling in the next year is Trimac.

Since January of this year, the bulk carrier Trimac has announced several large purchases, most notably that of Fortress Transport Inc., and a larger share of Northern Resources Trucking, based in Saskatoon.

Malysa told the group to expect more announcements of acquisitions and he stressed that they will be looking with extreme interest at the Quebec market.