Does Ontario’s Announcement of a Standardized Curriculum for Entry level Training Make a Meaningful Difference?

• By: admin
• On: 09/29/2026 11:49:16
• In: Press Releases

Will this make a difference, and what is the role of MCURES & MTO in the ELT File
For a bit of background, there are two government departments who have the main task of oversight for the Entry Level Training File. The Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research, Excellence & Security (MCURES), who is in charge of oversight for Registered Ontario Private Career Colleges, and the Ministry of Transportation (MTO), who oversees the training schools from a Commercial Vehicle Safety aspect. As is explained in the links above, the AG made 13 recommendations for changes in regards to oversight, compliance & overall improvements in ELT as a result of the findings in the AG's report. Some of the recommendations were for the MTO & some for MCURES.

Some improvements & increases in oversight have already occurred, & some were in place prior to the AG's report. Many of these improvements have come as a result of consultations that have been occurring between the MTO & industry stakeholders, including the PMTC, since January of 2025.

Some of the commitments/changes that have been made, we feel will have a positive impact. The MTO has announced a waiting period of 6 months after someone obtains their full class G License before they can attempt a class A, answering some concerns
about gaining experience. Someone arriving to Canada from jurisdictions that do not have reciprocal agreements with Ontario for license exchanges will be required to wait possibly over 2 years to obtain their class a, depending on experience. This answers experience questions also, as well as fraud issues industry has experienced.

The MTO has developed a Commercial Vehicle Training & Oversight Branch to oversee schools for safety & compliance and have committed to visiting all schools for on site audits, in cooperation with MCURES. Many audits have already occurred. The MTO is working with industry on many other items through our consultation process, & many other improvements are expected in the coming months. We see many of these items as positive steps, & something we have been asking for, for many years. The recent progress is appreciated.

As for as the most recent announcement,  in regards to a standardized curriculum, in our view, this announcement is much ado about nothing & will have little to no effect on the safety of the training industry. A standardized curriculum is not the issue in entry level training, & to be blunt, is not something the industry has been asking for. The new announcement by the MTO caught many training schools off guard, & many I have spoke with are upset as in recent months they have invested a ton of money & resources to meet a new curriculum requirement by MCURES.

Background on Curriculum
Currently, if a School wants to teach Entry level Training in Ontario, there is a training standard they are required to meet. The standard requires a minimum 103.5 hours in several competencies. The school must submit the curriculum they wish to teach to MCURES, who will review the curriculum & either approve or reject it. If approved & they meet all other requirements to be an Ontario PCC, as well as meet MTO requirements to operate, they will be approved to teach ELT.

In December of 2024, MCURES sent a bulletin out to approved schools detailing requirements for them  to submit detailed, minute by minute lesson plans as part of a new curriculum requirement, that was required to be submitted by July 1^st of 2025.  This caught schools off guard as well.
 
On May 26^th of 2025, MCURES issued a new bulletin announcing an extension to October 1^st of 2025. On Sept 23^rd of 2025 another bulletin was issued with a new deadline of July 1^st of 2026. The last bulletin came out a week before the October 1^st deadline. Many schools had already submitted their new curriculum, in order to meet the timelines announced by MCURES. In essence, whether you agree with the new requirements or not, compliant schools did the work required to meet the new standards, while schools who had not made the required investment had been handed a lifeline to continue training.

During the September announcement, tweaks were also made to what was required in the curriculum, meaning schools that had submitted their curriculum, reviewed by SME's, as required, had to change their curriculum again, have it reviewed, & resubmitted, all at their own cost. Schools that had not complied, and should have been shut down, were allowed to continue training, while the schools who had complied were now absorbing all the costs. From speaking to schools who had submitted, the time required to bring in staff, including instructors, detail minute by minute lesson plans, rewrite the curriculum, have it reviewed by SME's, submit it, along with other admin costs, would be an investment in the $20k range. If you add in revenue lost while an instructor is off the road as opposed to training this cost would go up even more. This is a cost per location, so if a school has more than 1 location, these costs would be even higher. As far as I am aware, not 1 of the submitted curriculums has been approved by MCURES to date.

Move forward to September 21^st, with the MTO announcement of a new standardized curriculum coming into effect in 2027. All of the time, efforts & resources invested above have been rendered useless. Schools that had no intention of complying, & would have been shut down, have now been handed a lifeline by the MTO. They can now continue to operate & compete against the schools at a greater financial benefit, as they will be handed a curriculum at no cost to them, while others invested thousands of dollar to comply with announced requirements & deadlines. This appears to be rewarding the very schools we have been advocating to weed out for non-compliance. In our view, this announcement is a solution looking for a problem, & one stakeholders at the table did not ask for.

Mike Millian
President
Private Motor Truck Council of Canada