Commercial trucker training and licensing problematic in Ontario: auditor general

A long-haul transport truck drives on the Ontario-bound portion of the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge, as seen from Ottawa on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

TORONTO — Ontario is not effectively monitoring commercial truck driver training and licensing regimes, leading to many unqualified drivers on the roads, the province's auditor general found in a special report released Tuesday.

Shelley Spence said her office has uncovered career colleges that have cut corners on training hours and skills, and found little oversight from two provincial ministries. She also found that six unregistered private career colleges that were investigated by the province were still booking tests and handing out driver training certificates despite not being allowed to do so.

The auditor filed 13 recommendations to the province, which has accepted all of them.

"We need to make sure as a government that we're training people correctly," Spence said, though she noted most truck drivers on the province's roads are trained.

Commercial truck drivers account for a disproportionate number of fatalities on Ontario's roads and the problem is especially acute in northern Ontario.

The auditor sent several people undercover as driving students at six training providers over six months last year.

"We found that two private career colleges delivered 59.5 and 81 hours of the required minimum of 103.5 training hours," Spence wrote. "Two of our students were not taught key truck driving elements such as left turns at major intersections, reverse parking and emergency stopping."

Spence cautioned that she cannot extrapolate the findings to the rest of the province, but it remains a cautionary tale.

"I will say that it is a problem and that putting controls in place, like we're recommending, to ensure that students are actually getting the training required is what the ministries that have this oversight should be looking for."

Spence noted that between 2019 and 2024 the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security "found that three registered private career colleges had falsified or altered student training records, four did not have records to demonstrate that some or all of their students had completed the required (entry level training) components, and three did not teach all of the required components."

But the auditor general found the ministry's inspection regime was lacking and, as of March 2025, had never inspected 54 of the 216 registered private career colleges offering entry level commercial truck training.

She also found the ministry has no process to routinely share inspection information with the Ministry of Transportation, which enforces driving laws, thereby handcuffing potential enforcement action.

Neither ministry monitored training outcomes for commercial truck drivers, "such as road test pass or fail rates, post-licensing driving infraction rates or collision rates," the report said.

Spence also found truckers' driving tests did not assess all highway manoeuvres at highway speeds.

Many of the problems Spence outlined have been addressed, said Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, including issues regarding several career colleges.

"I know many of those operators have been shut down," Sarkaria said. "We have zero tolerance for any of those bad actors."

He did say some of the auditor general's findings were troubling.

"We want to ensure that we're doing anything and everything possible," Sarkaria said.

He said his ministry and the colleges ministry have been conducting targeted enforcement of those schools. Sarkaria also said Ontario Provincial Police have got involved and charged several individuals, though he did not provide details on which schools or what the charges were.

Spence also found that safety improves the longer drivers wait after getting their regular driver's licence.

Sarkaria pointed to legislation passed last year that forces drivers to wait a mandatory six-month period after passing their general "G" driver's licence before applying for a commercial driving licence.

They've also made changes to require that drivers produce a valid work permit at a DriveTest centre as part of the licensing regime.

Several New Democrats went on a recent road trip from Toronto to the Manitoba border and back along highways 17 and 11 to highlight driving dangers, especially in winter.

They cited training and licensing gaps as a major reason for the problems on northern roads, along with infrastructure gaps including few separated highways and a dearth of passing lanes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2026.

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press