Overview
- Ontario announced on Monday that it will require every truck driving school to follow a single entry‑level curriculum that delivers more than 103 hours of training before a Class A licence can be issued.
- The move responds to an Auditor‑General report from May that found some private colleges were recording falsified hours, graduating students who lacked basic skills such as left turns and emergency stops, and that ministries had not inspected many schools.
- Since the report the government has stepped up enforcement by adding inspectors, requiring minute‑by‑minute road lesson plans, requiring proof of work authorization for commercial drivers, raising penalties for repeat school infractions and imposing a six‑month wait before taking a trucking test.
- The Transport Ministry will work with industry and experts to finish the curriculum, which may include fatigue management, northern and rural driving, human‑trafficking awareness and mandatory air‑brake instruction, but the exact content and any rise in minimum hours remain unresolved.
- Trucking schools and industry groups say reputable programs often run about 200 hours and welcome stronger oversight, while officials say the changes seek to cut a disproportionate share of truck‑involved crashes and improve competence on northern roads ahead of the early‑2027 rollout.