Manitoba Crown corporation says some drivers will not need road tests for licence
CTV
Manitoba's Crown-owned auto insurance corporation is temporarily letting some people get their driver's licence without doing a road test.
Many Manitobans are being temporarily offered the ability to get a driver's licence without doing a road test, and the idea has raised safety concerns in some quarters.
Manitoba Public Insurance, the province's Crown-owned auto insurance corporation, announced the step after 1,700 workers went on strike Monday, causing a backlog of services.
"We've had to cancel 4,000 Class 5 driving tests and knowledge tests, and every day that this labour disruption goes on, that backlog gets larger and larger," MPI board chair Ward Keith said.
People who graduate from the driver education program, which is aimed primarily at high school students but also available to others, will be able to get a Class 5 licence -- the common licence that applies to passenger vehicles -- and skip the road test while the strike continues. Other applicants will continue to undergo a road test, which will be handled by certified driving instructors brought in for the work.
Keith said the move can be done without compromising road safety because the driver's education program includes hours of practice on the road in addition to in-class instruction.
But a private driving instructor in Winnipeg said it's a bad idea.
"I teach driver's ed kids and I would say 80 per cent of the kids, maybe even more, are not ready to go on the road without further training," Neena Bedi said.
