Burlington City Council passed a motion during today’s (May 20) Regular Meeting of Council requesting the Ontario provincial government and the Ministry of Transportation to provide an update to a 2023 report that found that both institutions had been lacking when it came to overseeing the training and examination of new drivers.
The report, which was created by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk in December 2023, had 18 recommendations for the province and said that “the Ministry of Transportation did not have effective evidence-based driver examination programs to evaluate and test novice drivers thoroughly and consistently.”
411 people were killed and more than 26,000 injured on Ontario’s highways in 2023, making it the deadliest year in the last 15 years.
296 people were killed on the highways in 2024 prior to Thanksgiving, with the Ontario Provincial Police stating that most of those deaths were attributed to poor and careless behaviour on the roads.
The motion also speaks on how driving schools and instructors in Ontario have been caught submitting false information to the government in the past to fast-track novice drivers who had not completed the mandatory 40 hours of driving school training.
“I hope it will help the community to understand some of the root causes of the accidents that we see on our roads and some of the tragedies as well,” Ward 3 councillor Rory Nisan said. “The testing system for new drivers is clearly broken. There have been numerous stories that show how the system can be gamed, and the result is that untrained and dangerous drivers are on our street with licenses they shouldn’t have.”
The city has implemented a number of measures to curtail these issues, including speed camera, lowering speed limits, introducing speed bumps and more, they have no jurisdiction over driver training and exams.
Ward 1 councillor Kelvin Galbraith also spoke on the impact that accidents on the highway have on inner-city traffic, such as a recent accident on the QEW Niagara that brought downtown traffic to a standstill.
“Safer streets have always been a priority for me,” he said. “A lot of accidents that happen in Burlington are on our provincial highways which run through Burlington and use our emergency services to get to them. It’s a very important issue for our local residents, and it’s not a healthy environment to have all that traffic in the city.”
The provincial government has not yet provided a substantial update on any action taken regarding the recommendations from the Auditor General’s report.
The motion passed by the city endorses the report and the recommendations that came with it and requested a formal update from the province and a meeting with the Minister of Transportation, Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, to follow up on what actions have been taken by the government to improve driver training and ensure that driver examinations are being carried out correctly.
The motion will also be forwarded to all cities and towns listed in the Auditor General’s report and the most dangerous cities in Ontario to drive in to encourage them to pass a similar motion, as well at the Region of Halton, Halton Regional Police, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the Driving Instructors Association and Young Drivers of Canada.
Related story: Poor decisions cause 'vast majority' of fatal collisions: OPP
