Unqualified truck drivers on Ontario roads due to oversight gaps: auditor general

Ontario’s auditor general says unqualified truck drivers are ending up on the road because the province is failing to effectively monitor training and licensing in the commercial sector.

The findings were part of four new reports released today by Auditor General Shelley Spence, which also examined special education and artificial intelligence.

“Road safety depends not only on the rules, but on consistent training, testing and enforcement,” Spence said.

The audit uncovered that some career colleges are cutting corners on training hours and essential skills. According to the report, some students were not taught how to make left turns at major intersections, reverse park or perform emergency stops. The office also found a lack of oversight from two provincial ministries.

The report noted that while large commercial trucks represent only three per cent of vehicles on the road, they accounted for 12 per cent of vehicles involved in fatal collisions in Ontario between 2019 and 2023.

Premier Doug Ford responded to the findings in Toronto this morning.

“If we find one training school that is not going by the guidelines, not training their truck drivers, they’re done, they’re gone,” Ford said. “You’ll never hear of them anymore.”

Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria could not confirm how many schools have been shut down or charged but noted the ministry has conducted 50 assessments of training facilities since December. Sarkaria said the ministry has “zero tolerance for any of those bad actors” and has accepted the auditor general’s 13 recommendations.

Meanwhile, a separate report from the auditor general shows that supports and resources for special education students are falling short of what is required.

Spence attributed the shortfall to a lack of standardized guidance for student placement, inconsistent implementation of Individual Education Plans, delayed assessments and gaps in Ministry of Education oversight.

The report follows the death of Max Simao, a seven-year-old Hamilton boy with autism who was hit by a bus and died after being sent home from school early due to a lack of resources.

Education Minister Paul Calandra said today that more needs to be done to ensure consistency and better data collection, though he expressed uncertainty as to whether more funding is the sole answer.

“More needs to be done. More consistency. Better data collection. And ensuring that what we’re doing, the money that we’re spending has the results that are required to have the best outcomes for the students,” Calandra said.

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