Commercial trucker training and licensing problematic in Ontario: auditor general

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.

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

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 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 higher speeds.

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