Drive test backlog affecting some northern Ontario firefighters

Sudbury -

Central Manitoulin Fire Chief Philip Gosse says out of the 38 volunteer firefighters on his roster, only 12 have the credentials to drive the fire truck right now. He adds that half of the members of that group are working towards getting their 'D' licence, but it could be months before that is completed due to the ongoing provincial testing backlog.

"Two people out of the six have the written 'D' done, and then as soon as the six are all done, we would like to get in as soon as we can for the drive test for the 'D' licence. Right now, we understand going for a drive test is looking May, June now and it’s always changing," Gosse said.

Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Michael Mantha received a letter from the municipality and he shared it with the legislature last week reading in part "Our volunteer firefighters are having great difficulty. When a call comes in, there are not enough qualified drivers for the fire trucks. We have some qualified drivers but since it’s a volunteer force they are not always available or in the area to respond to every call. This situation can’t go on."

Mantha said the government’s offer of one extra examiner isn’t going to make a dent in the demand facing the northern region.

"People’s health and welfare is (sic) at stake because Doug Ford continues to ignore rural and northern communities," he said. "Ford is failing people in rural communities and he must urgently address the growing drive test backlog with additional testing locations in the north."

In response, Jordanna Colwill, a spokesperson for transportation minister Caroline Mulroney, said the capacity issue is not new and blames it on the previous Ontario Liberal government.

"The lack of road test capacity in the north didn’t happen overnight. These issues were the result of neglect by the previous Liberals who had 15 years to solve these problems but instead did nothing. Our government is tackling the road test backlog COVID-19 created with a comprehensive plan. We are investing more than $16 million to increase road testing capacity at all DriveTest centres across the province and hiring 251 additional driving examiners. By the end of fall, 19 of these will be deployed to centres located across northern Ontario. This is expected to increase testing capacity in the region by approximately 150 per cent," Colwill said.

The current backlog for passenger road testing is not affecting availability for commercial drivers, she said.

"Our ministry has been working closely with local fire departments to ensure they have access to testing and help them secure a test as soon as possible. If any fire department faces difficulties to secure a test, the ministry would be pleased to assist," Colwill said.

"We know there is still a lot of work to do. More appointments will be uploaded to the system, but solving this long-standing issue will take time and we appreciate the public’s patience."

Another challenge that central Manitoulin faces is having four stations rather than one hall, Gosse said, saying it makes scheduling volunteers a challenge. In the meantime, he said everyone is working together to do what they can to ensure response times aren’t affected.