Star investigation: Toronto driving schools bending the rules to make a buck
Transportation Minister Glen Murray vows action as Star reveals scores of driving schools across the GTA are teaching new drivers without ministry approval.
New drivers across the GTA are entrusting their training to driving schools that are not licensed to teach them, a Star investigation reveals.
A Star reporter posing as a beginner G1 driver found 50 schools willing to offer in-car lessons even though they are not authorized by the province to do so.
Driving instructor Gurmeet Kaur insisted her New Learner’s Driving School in Brampton is approved by the Ministry of Transportation. It’s not.
Instructor Khushwant Rai Mittal told the Star he “sometimes” offers new drivers lessons even after admitting that his Impact Driving School isn’t supposed to.
Artur Duarte Assuncao said he had no idea that he needed provincial approval to offer G1 drivers in-car lessons through his Stop-Automobile Driving School
These instructors, and dozens of others like them, are able to turn a profit teaching new drivers because the transportation ministry is not monitoring them.
Many of them get around provincial rules by signing a contract with a ministry-approved school and then setting up their own school on the side.
The incentive? More students, more money and cash in hand.
The danger? New drivers are learning from schools operating with little or no oversight.
And drivers beware: insurance companies told the Star that if you are in an accident while taking lessons from these schools you may not be fully protected.
When presented with some of the Star’s findings, newly minted Transportation Minister Glen Murray said there is “clearly more work to do,” adding the ministry is now taking steps to educate new drivers, schools and instructors about the law.
But for parents and students looking to get good driver training now, the industry is a “minefield,” said Anne Marie Hayes, president of Teens Learn to Drive, a Mississauga-based non-profit whose mission is to reduce death and injury from traffic accidents
http://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2013/03/05/star_investigation_toronto_driving_schools_ben...
It would appear that most of the offenders should be deported.
