A Cold Lake driver examiner is showing concern about the province's proposed way of doing business, and the City of Cold Lake agrees.
On Tuesday, Nov. 13, Cold Lake council discussed what transferring driver examiners in the area from contract to staff employees would mean to the municipality.
The city will be sending a letter to Service Alberta to outline council's concerns with their decision to make all driver examiners provincial employees. The new system is expected to come into effect on March 1, 2019.
“The concern is there really is no reason to make this change, especially in rural Alberta, where big city ideas might not work. It’s a concern that the government is going to have just one examiner between Bonnyville, Cold Lake, and maybe St. Paul. It’s going to be a huge inconvenience for people. I just don’t see the reasoning in taking away livelihood from the private sector that we have contracted out for this service,” explained Mayor Craig Copeland.
It was after receiving correspondence from one of the local examiners that Copeland asked the issue be brought forward to council for discussion.
CAO Kevin Nagoya said, “(You received) a letter from a local resident that raised concerns to you, because their contract is becoming matured and (Service Alberta) is changing the format to more of an employee relationship over a contract relationship."
What that means, is driver examiners would go from being contracted for their work and only providing their services when needed, to working as an employee out of a provincial office.
“I think the biggest concern, when you’re talking about rural Alberta, is these service centres and registry offices find it more beneficial to hire a contractor on an as-needed basis. If they only have one test in a day, they can come in and conduct that driver examination, that’s done and they get their fee for doing that, versus having a staff member sitting at the registries office or the provincial office in the area,” Nagoya explained.
According to council, Service Alberta is considering reducing the number of driver examiners in the region, which could cause issues for residents.
The two Cold Lake examiners currently offer road exams for all classes.
Nagoya said depending on where the examiner is located, the public would be required to travel for driver's tests and re-certifications.
In October, the province announced their intentions of amending the road test model for all driver's licence classes.
In a press release from Oct. 2, the province lists benefits such as enhanced oversight to ensure road test services are conducted fairly and professionally, a call centre for complaints, online and in-person scheduling, and standardized fees for services.
For Coun. Chris Vining, the issue lies with the provincial government being unable to properly license contracted examiners.
“You have allegations of corruption, and people being able to buy driver’s licenses out of certain municipalities… or in different communities,” he stressed. “They need to look at other alternatives, whether it’s a better certification process on contractors or better licensing of contractors. But this idea they’re going to, it’s going to work really well in seven or eight municipalities in Alberta, and for the rest of us, it’s going to suck."
Copeland agreed.
“Rural Alberta just keeps on getting dumped on… We have to stop bringing big city ideas to small rural areas like ours,” Copeland added.
The city voted to send a letter to Service Alberta, detailing their concerns with the amendments.
