Ministry of Transportation adding six temporary sites to address driving test backlog

Temporary drive test sites opening From CTV Kitchener's Colton Wiens: The province is adding temporary drive test sites to accommodate a backlog of about 700,000 road tests.

KITCHENER — Thousands of people have had their in-vehicle passenger road test appointments delayed or cancelled because of the pandemic, so the Ministry of Transportation is creating temporary testing sites to help clear up the backlog.

In-vehicle passenger tests were prohibited since April 3, when Ontario entered the province-wide shutdown, and resumed on June 14 at DriveTest centres across the province.

According to the Ministry of Transportation, there is currently a backlog of approximately 700,000 passenger road tests.

The ministry said it’s investing more than $16 million to increase testing capacity. Six temporary DriveTest centres will offer testing seven days a week in areas where the highest demand.

The exact locations are still being determined, but they are expected to be within a 30-minute driving radius from existing locations with the greatest demand, which are:

Another 167 temporary driver examiners will also be hired on top of the 84 new temporary driver examiners announced in the fall. The new staff should be working by September.

“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020), there have been approximately 421,827 road tests cancelled due to closures and Grey-Lockdown restrictions,” said Lee Alderson, senior issues advisor for the Ministry of Transportation, in an email.

Specifically in Kitchener 18,473 tests were cancelled, while 17,838 were cancelled in Guelph.

“The waiting list is very long, and people tend to get a little bit frustrated because of that,” said Vicki Kannapin, a regional trainer with Young Drivers of Canada.

Kannapin said the last time she tried to book a road test, she was in a queue for two hours waiting.

“Almost as fast as there is openings, somebody has taken it,” said Kannapin.

New drivers like Sasha Lemire have been waiting a long time for the chance to take their tests. Lemire had been trying for months to book in her hometown of Stratford, but started looking at other locations like Kitchener as she couldn’t seem to find an appointment at her local branch. She finally got an appointment in Kitchener on Thursday.

“I had it booked for April 9, and because they closed the weekend before April 9 it got canceled. And then I went on like the DriveTest site like 80 million times, because most people would cancel their tests at night and it wouldn’t go up until like 3 a.m.,” said Lemire.

The ministry said new appointments are added regularly and it encourages people to check online to book a test.