By Adam Berls

driver's testing

Ukrainians will soon be able to take driver’s test in native language, not Russian

Mar 8, 2023 | 2:15 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — Ukrainians arriving in British Columbia will soon be able to write a driver’s licence test in their native language rather than Russian.

MLA for Kootenay East Tom Shypitka asked the government back in September why Ukrainians were having to do written tests for driver’s license in Russian, rather than Ukranian. He was told that adding Ukrainian to the list of languages couldn’t be done at the time due to costs, and that Ukrainians wishing to get their driver’s license could either use the telephone translation service, which is seen as cumbersome, or take the written test in Russian.

When asked about this in Question Period on Thursday, March 2, the Minister of Public Safety & Solicitor General Mike Farnworth agreed with Shypitka on the challenges that Ukrainians are facing when it comes to taking the licensing test. Farnworth said that he “completely agrees that asking (Ukrainians) to write in Russian is just completely unacceptable.”

Another issue of concern is that Ukrainians hoping to get their CDL, who have had previous commercial driving experience, have been jumping through a number of hoops to get that including long wait times, being asked for proof 2 years of driving experience and documents from the Ukranian government, which is incredibly difficult right now because of the war.

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Minister Farnworth did recognize the oversight and promised action would be taken. While the Minister did not give a specific date for when this, Shypitka told CKPG News that March 27th was a date being discussed for the changes to take effect. This has not been confirmed by the provincial government.