Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria announced a new standardized curriculum for commercial truck driver training on Monday, responding to an auditor general's report that found serious problems at some of the province's private training colleges.
What the audit found
Auditor General Shelley Spence released a special report in spring 2026 after undercover investigators reviewed truck driving colleges across Ontario. At two of the colleges examined, training fell well short of the required minimum: one delivered only 59.5 hours and another just 81 hours, against a minimum of 103.5 hours. Investigators also found students at some colleges were never taught basic skills like left turns at major intersections, reverse parking and emergency stopping. Three colleges were found to have falsified or altered training records outright.
The scale of the problem grew alongside the industry itself. The number of private colleges offering truck driver training in Ontario jumped from 93 in 2019 to 205 in 2024. Oversight didn't keep pace: as of March 2025, the ministry had never inspected 54 of the 216 registered private career colleges offering entry-level commercial truck training.
The new curriculum
Under the new standardized curriculum, drivers will need more than 103 hours of training before they can obtain a Class A licence, up from what some schools were actually delivering. New mandatory subjects include fatigue management, driving in northern, rural and remote conditions, human trafficking awareness, and air brake training. The curriculum is set to take effect next year, in 2027.
The changes build on an earlier legislative adjustment implemented last year, which now requires new drivers to hold a G licence for six months before they can pursue a commercial licence.
Cracking down on bad actors
Sarkaria said the province has already moved against training operators who cut corners. "I know many of those operators have been shut down. We have zero tolerance for any of those bad actors," he said. Seventeen unregistered schools were found to have booked more than 3,200 road tests between January 2024 and June 2025.
Since the audit, the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security has inspected 14 additional career colleges, and the Ontario Provincial Police has initiated charges in several cases connected to the training school findings.
Why it matters in Ottawa
Poorly trained commercial drivers on those routes are a safety concern for every other vehicle sharing the road, which is why the auditor general's findings, and the province's response to them, carry weight well beyond the colleges directly involved.
For now, the new hours and course requirements won't apply until 2027, so anyone entering commercial truck training this year will still be trained under the existing rules, even as the province works through inspections and enforcement against the operators already flagged.
Sources: 650 CKOM, Global News, Truck News
