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Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3: Ontario Ministry to open new Drive Test centres

The intent is to clear a bottleneck caused by pandemic-related delays

Matthew Guy
Aug 05, 2021  •  August 5, 2021  •  1 minute read  •  Join the conversation
senior instructor teaching learner driver to park a car
Photo by Getty

If you’ve been waiting for a driving exam in Ontario, you’ll be familiar with the testing backlog wrought by the ongoing global pandemic. In fact, it has been rumoured that the on-hold music piped though the Ministry’s telephone system is being considered as a replacement for the official provincial anthem.

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Okay, maybe that last part is made up. What’s not a fiction is the introduction of new Drive Test locations across the province, designed to address the logjam in areas where demand is highest to help more new drivers get their G2 and G licences. It’s been about six weeks since the Ministry resumed in-car testing services, but some new drivers have reported being offered a slot months down the road. There are apparently somewhere in the neighbourhood 700,000 road test requests in the system. The Ontario government says they plan to hire over 150 extra temporary driver examiners to address the backlog, adding to the 84 examiners who were hired last autumn.

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A pair of these new temporary centres will open on Monday — one each in Guelph and Oshawa. They will exclusively offer G2 and G road tests daily during normal business hours from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. The Oshawa site will operate seven days a week, but the location in Guelph is set to be closed on weekends for now. That situation may change later this year. Additional sites will open in Toronto, Hamilton/Niagara, Mississauga/Brampton, and York/Durham next month.

The inability to properly obtain a full driver’s license has been troublesome for more than a few people, especially those who require wheels in order to work. If a license-less person is offered employment in a location some distance from public transportation, for example, they may be forced to turn down the job simply because they cannot reliably find their way to work.

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