NEWS RELEASE
July 16, 2019
For immediate release

Cold Lake, AB – The City of Cold Lake is working to understand concerns about impacts that changes to the delivery of driver’s examinations are having in the community.

“We’ve heard that residents are having trouble accessing this service,” Mayor Craig Copeland said. “There are concerns in the community that people trying to access road tests are facing severe waiting times.”

Last year, the former provincial government made the decision to stop delivering road tests through contractors and to hire provincial employees to provide the service. In November of last year, Council wrote a letter to the then minister of Service Alberta, which went unanswered until after the election. The response, which came from the then deputy minister on April 11, 2019, said that demand for driver’s examinations would be monitored by the government.

Council and administration will work to understand the level of service being provided in Cold Lake, and weather the level of service has changed.

“We need to collect all of the information we can but, certainly, if people are being told they need to travel 150 kilometres or more to access a road test in a timely manner, council will need to consider lobbying the new government to restore the service,” Copeland said. “This can affect people’s quality of life and even their employment, and the previous government did not signal a loss of service when they made changes to the program.”

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