MPI resumes driver testing as strike by 1,700 unionized workers continues

Manitoba's public auto insurer is removing its road test requirement for some drivers, after its Class 5 driver testing service was stalled by a strike that began earlier this week.

Manitoba Public Insurance announced its plan to restart its Class 5 driver testing through a partnership with certified driver education instructors in a news release on Wednesday, two days after some 1,700 workers represented by the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union hit the picket lines.

The release said drivers who complete MPI's driver education program can get their licence without having to take a road test.

MPI board chair Ward Keith said the program — offered mostly to high school students but also to adults in rural and remote communities where driving schools aren't available — is comprehensive. It includes 15 hours of behind-the-wheel teaching and 20 hours of in-class learning. Forty-five hours of in-car practice is also required to complete the program, Keith said.

"People who go through the driver's ed program have a much higher pass rate on the road test than the general public, and they also have a much better record in terms of collisions and traffic convictions," Keith told CBC News on Wednesday afternoon, adding that they account for about 12 per cent of road tests.

Those under the age of 18 must have their parents' consent to be licensed without a road test, Keith said.

"Parents are typically the ones who provide the supervising driving hours as part of the program. So if parents have any concern whatsoever about licensing their kids without a road test, then MPI would not do that," he explained.

Drivers not part of the program will be offered road tests for a Class 5 licence — the most common licence type, which allows drivers to operate passenger vehicles and light trucks — through one of the driver education instructors with whom MPI has partnered. Priority will be given to those who had appointments cancelled as a result of the strike, the corporation said.

Driving instructors will have discretion to perform the testing in a customer's vehicle or in their own safety-equipped training vehicles. Keith said the instructors are being trained on driver testing protocols "so that they know exactly what the requirements are for someone to pass a road test successfully."

MPI will also have discretion to require a driver to undergo retesting — free of charge — once the strike is over, the release said, but did not explain what circumstances would result in a retest.

2,000 road tests cancelled

MPI is already facing a backlog of driving tests, Keith said.

So far this week, he said MPI has cancelled about 2,000 road tests.

The public auto insurer is currently reaching out to those people to rebook appointments and tests should be underway by the beginning of next week, Keith said.

MPI is also resuming the written driver's knowledge test, which consists of 30 multiple-choice questions pulled from the Manitoba Driver's Handbook. Those who pass that test earn a learner's licence. About 2,000 of those test appointments have been cancelled, Keith said.

Anyone with existing appointments for the knowledge test is being contacted with details about how and where those will be administered.

Keith said the plan will be monitored closely by MPI officials and revised if necessary.

Arrangements have already been made for other services offered by MPI, such as licence renewals, insurance policies and payments, and collision damage claims.

The next step is to resume testing for driving commercial vehicles, like semi-trailers and buses, said Keith.

In Wednesday's news release, Keith reiterated statements he made earlier this week, saying MPI's negotiating team is willing to meet at the table with the union, but only to work through finalizing the offer that's been tendered "and iron out next steps for proceeding to arbitration on the issue of general wage increases."

Last weekend, MPI said it had offered a four-year deal to MGEU workers that included two per cent annual general wage increases over four years, a one per cent market adjustment on wages for about 75 per cent of union members, and a 3.5 per cent wage jump for employees when they reach the top of their pay grades.

The union has said it wants an offer on par with what Premier Heather Stefanson and other elected provincial officials are getting — raises of 3.3 per cent this year and another 3.6 per cent in 2024 and likely 2025.