On May 12^, Ontario’s Auditor general released a scathing report on the state of Class A entry-level training and oversight in the province of Ontario.

The auditors sent out “secret shoppers” who attended six training schools between June and December 2025. Two of the six schools only required students to complete 59.5 and 81 hours of training, respectively, while still passing them through the course. This was well short of the minimum 103.5 hours required.

The schools had the students sign off that they completed all required training and then entered them as passed in the MTO’s IT system, allowing them to book a road test.

The Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research, Excellence & Security (MCURES), which is in charge of oversight for registered Private Career Colleges (PCCs), has never inspected 54 of 216 PCCs. Worse yet, of the 81 PCC that have reached the five-year threshold for required reinspection, 44 of them, or 54%, had yet to be reinspected as of March 2025.

It was also found that MCURES did not routinely share inspection findings with the MTO, who has authority over those who receive their A/Z license.

The AG report uncovered two of the 12 PCCs reviewed employed unqualified driving instructors. A review of 10 investigation files found that four PCCs were actively employing a total of seven unqualified instructors. 

The AG found six unregistered PCCs that were investigated and penalized by MCURES yet, unfathomably, as of June 2025 were still booking road tests. Unregistered schools were also found to be providing training, then working with a registered school to enter the info into the ELT database. One of the PCCs continued to operate after a self-reported closure. The penalty for this offence was only $6,500.

Between January 2024 and June 2025, 29 unregistered schools booked a total of 6,393 exam appointments in Serco’s system. Some of these schools had been suspended by MCURES. Serco’s interface does not allow them to verify if the school that entered the student’s info into the system is registered, a massive flaw in oversight.

A DCP organization is approved to train and test/license its own students. If the MTO suspends its license, it is not allowed to train or certify drivers during the suspension period.

However, the MTO’s IT system does not, in turn, prevent the suspended organization from testing and certifying the student. One suspended DCP organization was suspended three times between 2017 and 2025, yet while suspended, a total of 358 students started and completed their entry-level training there, and 96% received their Class A license.

The MTO told the AG that it was not aware that DCP organizations were training and certifying while suspended. To be blunt, the fact that this can occur is insane, reckless, and clearly has a detrimental effect on road safety!

Since 2009, the number of PCCs delivering entry-level training has increased from 93 to 205. During the same period, the number of students who completed ELT rose from 13,683 to 22,699. MCURES is responsible for oversight, including conducting audits on all 595 PCCs, not just those who provide Class A training. MCURES only employs eight inspectors.

Industry is concerned, but not surprised

The PMTC, along with many other stakeholders, is not the least bit surprised by the AG’s report. The PMTC was one of the key stakeholders that worked with the MTO for a period of more than two years in designing the Class A training standard that was introduced in July 2017.

During these meetings, we routinely warned the MTO that if it did not have a thorough compliance and oversight plan in place prior to the implementation of MELT (mandatory entry-level training), the desired outcome would be undermined by the underbelly of the training industry.

In addition, industry has consulted with MTO routinely since 2019 on the issues with MELT, warning of the massive increase of schools registering, being approved and supplying training who were in no way complying with the training requirements.

The PMTC, along with several other stakeholders, provided the MTO and MCURES with several recommendations during rounds of consultations, that were routinely taken uphill, as far up as the transport minister’s office and right to the premier’s attention.

For a period of six years, none of these recommendations were acted upon and none were put into place. During this time period, issues continued to get worse with no serious action being taken by government.

The current mess we are in did not occur overnight; it was allowed to fester and expand over a period of years with no meaningful changes or enforcement occurring.

So, now what?

The time for big words and threats of serious consequences from the podium by our elected officials needs to be in the past, as words with no actions mean nothing.

It is time to get serious and put money and resources towards fixing this problem once and for all. In fairness, the government of Ontario has made some changes recently.

In 2025, it introduced a Driver Training, Compliance, Oversight and Modernization Branch. Under this group’s guidance, it has begun increasing audits, with cooperation from MCURES and MTO.

The province has committed to auditing all schools in the next year. We are currently consulting with the MTO on a number of changes and recommendations.

While I am unable to go into details, as we had to sign a non-disclosure clause, I can say we are discussing mandatory waiting periods after obtaining a Class G license before being allowed to attempt a Class A road test.

We are also discussing on-road experience, training, testing, audit and oversight, improvements to MELT, as well as several other topics. The PMTC is hopeful this will all finally lead to meaningful change. As an industry, we can’t afford to wait any longer for the government to get serious. Meaningful oversight, with strict penalties, needs to begin as soon as possible.