Type of Intervention: Regulation
Sectors Involved: Social Services, Transportation
Intervention Categories: Legal and policy; Regulatory change
Level of Jurisdiction: Ontario
Lead People/Agency: Decision makers: Chief Medical Officer of Health (Dr. David Williams) and other public health officials, Caroline Mulroney (Ontario Minister of Transportation), Lisa Thompson (Ontario Minister of Government and Consumer Services), Christine Elliot (Ontario Minister of Health)
Implementers: Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, Ministry of Health
Overview: Ontario announced an extension on the validity periods for driver, vehicle, and carrier products, services, and health cards. This includes extensions for drivers licenses, license plate validation, Ontario Photo Cards, and Commerical Vehicle Operator Registration certificates, among others. The Ministry of Transportation is also automatically extending the due dates for medical and vision reports. The goal of these extensions are to reduce the need for in-person visits to ServiceOntario, International Registration Plan offices, and DriveTest centres during the outbreak, promoting compliance with social distancing and helping contain virus spread.
Full details here: https://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2020/03/ontario-extending-validation-periods-for-driver-vehicle-and-carrier-products-services-and-health-car.html
Type of Justification: Advice of INTERNAL government advisory committee or group
Source of Evidence or Justification: Sub-national, provincial Chief medical officer of health and other public health officials
Evidence/Justification: Cites the advice from Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, and from other public health officials as evidence for implementing these extensions. The justification for the policy is to facilitate compliance with social distancing recommendations and limit outings to services that would otherwise be considered essential (to avoid penalties for expired driving licenses, etc.).