MTO has no plans to open any more temporary DriveTest Centres

Ontario's Ministry of Transportation says it has no plans to open any more more temporary road test centres, despite thousands of cancelled road tests in Windsor-Essex due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an e-mail to AM800 News, a MTO spokesperson says "Since March 2020, there have been approximately 421,827 road tests cancelled across the province due to closures and Grey-Lockdown restrictions. This includes 8,916 in the Windsor-Essex region - 144 at the Leamington Travel Point location and 8,772 at the Windsor DriveTest centre."

The e-mail also says that "As of October 29, 2021, Windsor accounts for approximately 2.87% of the total backlog."

Ontario has opened nine temporary road test centres in Burlington, East Gwillimbury, Guelph, Niagara, Mississauga, Mount Joy (Markham), Ottawa, Oshawa and Sarnia.

Windsor West New Democrat MPP Lisa Gretzky is calling on the province to open a temporary DriveTest location in Windsor.

Gretzky says some constituents have contacted her to say they can't get a test until 2023, while others have travelled to other parts of the province to get a test.

The e-mail states "The opening of temporary road test centres is part of a larger initiative to eliminate the backlog of road tests resulting from COVID-19 restrictions. Our government is investing more than $16 million to increase road testing capacity at all DriveTest centres across the province. In addition to these temporary centres, our aggressive plan to address the backlog includes hiring 167 additional new temporary driver examiners. This new round of hiring is on top of our addition of the 84 temporary examiners announced in Fall 2020. We are also extending weekday operating hours for passenger road testing and offering passenger road tests on Saturdays and Sundays at select locations to clear the backlog of road tests."