Getting Off to a Better Start: Measures for New Drivers

Learning to drive is no easy task. Ontario's Graduated Licensing System (GLS) helps new drivers to gradually gain the skills and experience they need to drive safely, with special restrictions to help protect younger drivers. 

While graduated licensing has helped reduce the collision risk among young drivers, youth continue to be overrepresented in collisions, including those resulting in injuries and fatalities.  That is why Ontario is proposing to move forward with two proposed changes that will make GLS even more effective:

• Increasing the length of time drivers spend at the G1 and G2 levels.

Currently, novice drivers can obtain a full G Class license in as little as 20 months. Under the new rules, the minimum time it would take to get a full "G" Class driver's licence would be 30 months:  18 months at the G1 level (reducible to 12 months if the driver completes an approved driver education course) and another 18 months at the G2 level.

• Escalating sanctions for novice drivers for any combination of repeat violations of G1/G2/M1/M2 restrictions; convictions for individual HTA offences totalling four demerit points or higher; or court-ordered licence suspensions for HTA offences that would have resulted in four demerit points had the suspension not been ordered. 

These drivers would receive, upon conviction:

• First instance - 30-day licence suspension

• Second instance - 90-day licence suspension

• Third instance - the driver must reapply to the graduated licensing program, beginning at the G1 level.

These changes will take effect as early as summer 2010.