Syrian refugees will be sent into graduated licence program

Syrian refugees looking to drive in the province will be treated like 16 year olds and sent into the graduated licence program because the New Brunswick government does not recognize licences from their home country.

This could pose a problem for refugees, who are looking for work in New Brunswick and plan on applying for jobs that require them to drive.

The New Brunswick government recognizes 19 different countries, including England, France, Italy, Germany and South Korea, which means those residents can simply trade in their driver's licences for a New Brunswick licence.

But the Syrian refugees at this point will have to start from the beginning, even if they had valid licences in their home country.

The refugees will have to go through the whole process which includes a written examination, vision test and road test.

Paul Bradley, spokesperson with the Department of Public Safety, says the department has been working with resettlement agencies since December. 

In an email to CBC News, he said the province is "permitting the use of translators for newcomers requiring translation into Arabic during the written and road tests"

Examiners will often recommend that newcomers take driving lessons when they arrive in New Brunswick.

Howard Curry, a driver instructor at Dornan Driving School, has been teaching new arrivals in New Brunswick for 22 years now.

"It's a case of them not knowing exactly what the driver examiner needs to see," he said.

The cost of lessons is somewhere between $600 and $800.

Entering the GDL program

New Brunswick's graduated driver's licence program is based on experience and not on age because "statistics show that new drivers have more collisions because of their inexperience," according to the provincial government's website.

The provincial government requires all new drivers to spend a minimum of 24 months with a graduated driver's licence before they can receive a full licence.

In level one of the graduated system, a driver cannot be alone or with passengers other than a supervising driver with three years of experience behind the wheel. This level is intended to be 12 months long.

During this period, new drivers cannot drive between midnight and 5 a.m.

Once they pass a road test and are accepted into the second level of the graduated licence program, they are allowed to drive with up to three passengers.

But in level two, they still have restrictions on when they can drive between midnight and 5 a.m.

The application fees for the written examination is $25, road test another $25 and Class 7 licence $90.

For re-writing a test, it is an extra $15 and the each attempt at a road test costs $25 every time.

Some provinces have systems set up to allow people coming from a country where there isn't a reciprocal agreement for driver's licences, to apply to bypass some of the graduated driver's licence program's requirements.

For instance, British Columbia requires a person to show proof of two years of driving experience, pass a knowledge test and then take a road test.

In Alberta, the provincial government allows exemptions from the graduated licence program, if a person comes from a country without a reciprocal agreement.

The Alberta government specifically mentions Syria as a country where its former residents can apply for an exemption from the graduated system if they meet specific criteria.