Right in the centre - Rethinking the whole process

Details

Published on Thursday, June 12, 2025

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

There is an apparent shortage of driving instructors in Manitoba. According to reports, MPI offers a summer program that allows students who are at least 15 1/2-years-old to complete the 35-hour classroom and eight-hour in-car requirements in five weeks by attending daily classes.

Some schools offer a driver’s ed program during the school year and there are also private driving schools. All these programs put together don’t fill the need or demand for driver training.

I must question why a potential driver would need 35 hours in the classroom. One would think that a thorough review of a study book or an online instruction session would be a better use of instructors and students time than 35 hours in the classroom. Certainly, everybody needs some study and practical experience but there has to be a a better way.

I know younger people will find it amusing but when I got my driver’s license 60 years ago, it was a matter of going to the municipal office and putting $5 on the counter and signing up for a license with the RM Secretary Treasurer.

I vaguely remember being asked a few questions but being a farm boy, I had been driving the tractor since I was 10 or younger and the truck in the fields since I was 12. No driver instructor could have put a greater level of fear in me than my father when he yelled at me about making mistakes. Just as an added fear factor, the cars or trucks of that era mostly had standard transmissions, something most drivers today have no idea how to handle.

Obviously, many fewer kids today than those from  60 years ago have access to wide open fields, tractors and pick up trucks. Admittedly, the top speed on the 1960s half ton trucks was limited to about 70 mph and the tractors might do 15 mph. That alone reduced some of the risk.

Nevertheless there has to be a more efficient way to do driver training than the process that is currently happening.

A short while ago, I wrote a column about MPI (Autopac) and the huge amount of money they spent on a computerized customer tracking and policy renewal system. I was highly critical of the management at MPI and was taken to task by a MPI spokesperson. They requested I call and discuss the column with them and I intend to do so. I plan to share the results of that call with readers.

I have a thought about Autopac and wonder how much wildlife (usually deer hitting vehicles) costs Autopac each year. We had one of our vans out of commission for almost six months because a deer decided to cross in front of one of our drivers. My wife and I had a bit of a close call with two deer just last week. It was the same van, ironically.

I wonder how large the white tail deer population is in Manitoba compared to years gone by. Are there more vehicle deer collisions than other years. Perhaps it’s time to expand deer hunting in Manitoba. I understand that deer stay in relatively small areas. Can Autopac track the high wildlife collision areas. If that is so, perhaps there should be a bounty on deer in high collision areas. Then, perhaps all that good meat could be donated to food banks. I have said many times that with all the deer in Manitoba, it’s time for a cull, reduce our insurance risks and rates all the while benefitting the food banks. 

I believe there are still a lot of cull slaughter sows are shipped to the United States. Perhaps some of those sows could be slaughtered in Manitoba as it’s well know by hunters and farmers that deer meat and sow meat make a great food combination and there’s more help for the food banks. I know it’s a long way from driver training to making deer sausage, but it ties together. Fewer deer means fewer accidents, lower premiums and risk for young drivers, more meat for the food banks. It’s a win all around.

I doubt bureaucracy, be it Autopac or government  can get their heads around this idea but it would make sense in my opinion.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the newspaper staff.