The Ontario government says road tests needed to obtain a class G licence will be will be temporarily shortening due to the removal of the backlog caused by the lockdown last year with the effect of COVID-19. 

The modified G road test is in effect until March 31, 2022, but the MTO will continue to monitor testing levels and may extend the date if necessary. The G2 road test remains unchanged. The aim of this temporary modification for G Road test is reducing a backlog caused by COVID-19 restrictions and closures.

So what is changed on the G Road Test?

“As we temporarily pause these duplicative, discretionary components of the G test, we will continue to enforce the fundamentals of the G test while using modified, more direct routes to and from road test locations, which will enable a 30 per cent increase in appointments to be booked each day,” said MTO spokesperson Dakota Brassier  [1]. That means MTO will remove some elements from the G test that are also assessed in the lower-level G2 test, such as parallel parking, three-point turns and roadside stops. The routes to and from testing locations will be modified so they are more direct. These changes will make the test shorter, which will allow more tests to be booked and completed. Of course, this modification did not make everyone happy.

This modification made in the G Road test was criticized by Brian Patterson- the president and CEO of the Ontario Safety League-. He made statements that he found it wrong to modify the tests that have been tried and experienced for 25 years, the tests performed in 15 minutes will not give fair results, that low standard drivers may pass these tests, and that this may lead to serious accidents on the roads in the future. Although Patterson’s statement is thought to be true, it should not be forgotten that this situation is temporary. In addition, since the elements removed in the modification have already been observed in the G2 road test, this modification is not thought to cause major problems. As a result, it should be noted that the purpose of this modification is to reduce the backlog. Of course, experienced Road test observers are going to certainly not put substandard drivers to this test.