Ontario's Pandemic-Era G Driver’s Licence Test Changes Are Here to Stay: Is That a Good Thing?

Driving instructors typically tell novice drivers this important advice when changing lanes: check, signal, check again, then change lanes. Double-checking is important for safe driving, which is important to the Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO), but with the government agency changing the way it conducts driver’s licence testing, it appears that safety and double-checking might have taken a back seat to efficiency.

Shortly after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MTO announced that it would operate its G driver licence tests differently, omitting a few elements from the test to help clear the backlog. These elements included parallel parking, roadside stops, three-point turns, and driving in residential neighbourhoods. But even though the pandemic backlog is cleared and everything is operating as usual, the ministry has made the changes permanent.

Why Change the Licence Test?

“The ministry, along with its service provider, modified the G road test to offer more road test appointments while removing duplicate elements,” explains Tanya Blazina from the Ministry of Transportation Ontario. The rationale is that these elements are already tested during the G2 exam. 

(For readers outside Ontario, the graduated licensing program starts with a written test to obtain a G1, then a practical road test to get a G2. After a year of having a G2, drivers can test for their full G license.) 

“MTO conducted a preliminary review of the modified test, and the results demonstrated that the modified test evaluates driving abilities as effectively as the original road test,” Blazina says. “It passes and fails drivers at approximately the same rate, and drivers that pass the modified test do not present a heightened road safety risk compared to similar drivers who passed the original test.” 

The MTO didn’t explain how much shorter the new test is, or how it assessed road safety risks. The 2023 Annual General Report by acting auditor general Nick Stavropoulos took notice of the changes to the licencing process, saying the changes were made “without the support of proper policy analysis.” Furthermore, the auditor general's report found that examiners have a “pass rate target,” which may nullify the province's suggestions that pass/fail rates between the full and reduced tests are equal. The Annual General Report also mentioned that examiners were incentivized to deliver consistent pass/fail rates. Finally, the auditor general points out that drivers from other countries seeking to get a full Ontario G license may be allowed to bypass the G2 test, meaning they wouldn't have been assessed on some techniques at all in the reduced exam.

Blazina suggests that the changes to testing standards are beneficial. 

“Findings suggest that keeping the modified testing arrangements in place while we continue to evaluate the road test will benefit Ontarians overall in terms of reducing red tape without negatively affecting road user safety,” Blazina says.

Should These Changes Stick?

“Originally, the information we were getting was that they were going to bring those tests back,” says Brian Hart, Training Manager at Young Drivers of Canada driving school. Hart has been involved with driver education for 18 years, and now works with the organization's instructors to ensure that new drivers are properly trained for safe motoring on Ontario roads. He says removing elements in the licencing “doesn’t make it a very robust check.” 

“What we’re seeing is that the tests are short and quick, maybe 15 minutes,” he says. “There’s a residential driving portion, traffic lights, and a freeway portion, and then off you go. They’re not testing enough.”

Hart says that the curriculum at Young Drivers of Canada has been around for a long time, but evolves based on instructor feedback, noting that practices like parallel parking and emergency roadside stops (two elements that have been removed from the G test) have been brought up for further emphasis in classes and in-car practice.

“It’s important for people to practice those things,” he says. “I understand the ministry tested it before [with the G2 test], but some skills may not have been tested for over a year.” 

He’s not against making changes to the G test, but suggests some other tactics to make the test more robust if the ministry is set on not repeating elements. 

He explains that the emergency roadside stop (if an ambulance or fire truck with sirens is approaching, for example) is not tested in G2, then the freeway driving assessment should be longer. 

“There’s no such thing as too much testing,” he says. “Someone has to check these things, and we’ve been waiting for the ministry to beef up the testing process. It’s not looking like they’re going to, so it's on us.”

The ministry’s goal is to reduce red tape and make licencing easier for Ontarians, but the point of a driving test is to establish the quality, performance, and reliability of one's skills on the road, where safety is critical. A test that re-checks skills that were last assessed a year ago isn’t necessarily red tape, but it sets the tone for how critical road safety is for motorists.