MPI’s bureaucratic blunder mystifies expert

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This article was published 01/09/2023 (736 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Public Insurance’s sudden policy reversal on allowing some high school students to gain a driver licence without completing a road test is being labelled a bureaucratic blunder.

On Wednesday, the Crown corporation introduced a plan to waive road tests for some teenagers in an effort to address a growing testing backlog, while 1,700 Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union members remain on strike. On Thursday, MPI defended its decision — then abruptly cancelled the initiative a few hours later.

“I’ve been studying the bureaucracy for 20 years, and I have never seen such an uninformed policy announcement like the one we saw on Wednesday,” said Karine Levasseur, an associate professor in political studies at the University of Manitoba who specializes in public administration. “And then I’ve never seen a complete 180 (degree) policy reversal in the span of three hours. Never in my academic career.”

How MPI was able to adopt then cancel the plan so suddenly remains unclear.

Regulations under the Driver and Vehicles Act state “an applicant for any class of licence must pass the knowledge examination and the practical road test required for each class of licence for which application is made.”

However, a subsection of the act includes that examination may not be required when a person “has previously passed an examination that satisfies the registrar that the person is qualified to drive a motor vehicle of any class that the driver’s licence being issued authorizes the person to drive.”

A statement from MPI Friday said the corporation “considered all applicable provincial statutes and regulations” before making its decision.

Levasseur said she isn’t sure how MPI was able to make the road-test change so quickly.

“There’s certainly something to be said about this particular government that has (said)… there’s too much regulation, there’s too much red tape,” she said.

A provincial spokesperson for Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen, who is responsible for MPI, did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

Levasseur said she’s not surprised with an election about to be called on Tuesday.

“I am not surprised at all that there isn’t a clear explanation, nor is there any real accountability going on,” she said.

Levasseur, who worked as a policy manager for the province before moving to the U of M, presented several theories behind the policy push by MPI: there was a genuine concern about the mounting backlog of road tests, or an attempt to send a message that examiners are easily replaceable.

She said the plan required extensive input and study before being adopted.

“I would have made absolutely certain I had spoken with stakeholders, I would have made sure that I worked with our data team… and thought through all of the potential questions that the general public and reporters and others would have had,” Levasseur said. “And that didn’t happen here. There was a profound lack of good judgment in this scenario.”

MPI said it reversed its plan on the road tests due to “overwhelming response” from driving instructors, who joined striking MPI workers at picket lines Friday.

Protesters carrying signs reading “Leave testing to professionals” and “Don’t compromise public safety” were met with applause and handshakes from picketers.

Instructors say they have been courted by MPI to cross the picket line with the promise of higher pay, but fear possible conflicts of interest and insufficient training could result in more road accidents.

“We all work with MPI workers all the time. I’ve been doing this for last 25 years, and we are co-workers together, and we keep roads safe. We keep public safety as the main issue,” said Avtar Sidhu, instructor at A-Waverley Driving School.

“And if a Crown corporation like MPI, if they don’t care about public safety, then who will care?”

Examiners receive around eight to 10 weeks of training, but the instructors said those crossing the picket lines are getting just a few hours of prep.

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“What if they get into an accident? What if somebody gets really hurt this week because of this. Who’s held responsible? MPI?” asked Alexander Shannon, a former MPI examiner and owner of Diamond Lane Driving Academy.

Some instructors said they will continue pressuring the Crown corporation to drop the project should the strike continue. They say it’s a matter of life and death.

“It will be fatal. It’s not it could be, it will be fatal,” said Neena Bedi, of Neena’s Driving School.

“It’s just a matter of time.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.