Renfrew, Ont. DriveTest centre to cut hours despite major test backlog
Despite hundreds of thousands of backlogged passenger road tests across Ontario, the Renfrew DriveTest Centre is set to cut its hours in half in November.
"Ever since the lockdowns have happened there's a lineup out the door most times of the day, any given day of the week," says Tauney Stinson, the co-owner of New Directions Driving School in Cobden, who is fighting to keep the hours at the Renfrew location.
"Now DriveTest basically told me that they're not going to let anyone know whether or not they're staying open until at least the first week of November, including their staff," Stinson tells CTV News.
In correspondence between Stinson and DriveTest, obtained by CTV Ottawa, DriveTest says that customer demand at smaller testing locations, such as Renfrew, was behind the reduction of hours.
Currently across Ontario as of October 1, 2021, the Ministry of Transportation says there is a backlog of 550,422 passenger road tests. Since March 2020, there have been approximately 421,827 road tests cancelled across the province. There was no backlog prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesperson for the MTO confirmed on Wednesday.
"Students of mine can't get a road test booked until May of 2022, or sometimes later," says Stinson, whose businesses educates about 150 to 200 students every year.
DriveTest also says as smaller testing centres reduce hours, temporary testing centres will begin opening. One of those temporary sites will open in Ottawa as of Oct. 18, with DriveTest saying it will support Ottawa, Winchester, Smiths Falls, Renfrew, and other surrounding communities. It's a move Stinson doesn't understand.
"A temporary site in Ottawa would basically be a portable with a port-a-potty," says Stinson, pointing to other temporary centres already in operation. "At this location there wouldn't be any truck tests, bus tests, and there's wouldn't be any G1 written tests of any kind," adds the driving instructor, all of which are offered at full-time sites, like Renfrew.
Stinson created a petition in order to put pressure on the centre to keep its current hours, which are Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.