In compliance with precautionary measures announced under the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declared by the B.C. government on 17 March 2020, West Coast Driver Training will not be offering lessons during the two week period from Tuesday, 17 March 2020 to Tuesday, 31 March 2020.

As part of these precautionary Public Health measures the Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix have required the closure of bars and restaurants unless they can provide enough room to allow for “social distancing”, meaning they can keep people six feet away from each other and no more than 50 people gathered at once.

Dr. Bonnie Henry has also stated that people need to keep one to two metres away from each other, describing this as individuals being at arm’s length “fingertip to fingertip” from one another.

Since we obviously cannot comply with this “fingertip to fingertip” distance requirement while giving driving lessons in motor vehicles, we will be complying with these the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency requirements by ceasing driving lessons with clients until Tuesday, 31 March 2020.

We regret any inconvenience caused by this and we look forward to resuming lessons for our present clients and with new clients after 31 March 2020.

Here are links to some news reports about these COVID-19 Public Health requirements”

Global News – 17 March 2020
National Post – 17 March 2020
CBC News – 17 March 2020
Victoria News – 17 March 2020

Our 2020 Toyota Prius Prime is now available for lessons (photo: West Coast Driver Training) — Our 2020 Toyota Prius Prime (photo: West Coast Driver Training)

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ICBC has just announced a “Mandatory Questionnaire For Road Test Examinees To Screen For Potential COVID-19 Symptoms”.

We had a student do a Class 3 Road Test today at ServiceBC in Duncan and he was not screened for COVID-19 symptoms. But anyone going for a Road Test should be prepared to be scrfeened for Coronavirus symptoms.

Here is the ICBC announcement:

“Mandatory questionnaire for examinees to screen for potential COVID-19 symptoms

ICBC is taking additional measures to protect our driver examiners where a road test examinee may have travelled to a high risk country or is presenting symptoms known to be associated with the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.

Effective immediately, every examinee coming in for a road test will be asked about their recent travel destinations and asked some medical related questions.

After completing the questionnaire, an examinee will be advised if they can continue with their road test or be rescheduled. A minimum waiting period of 14 days will be required for a rescheduled road test.

Until further notice, a driver may cancel their road test within 48 hours of their test — and won’t be charged a Late Cancellation Fee — if their reasons are directly related to ICBC’s screening questions about COVID-19.

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, continue to take appropriate steps to maintain clean driver training facilities and vehicles, and to remind students of proper hygiene practices.

External resources:

· World Health Organization: About Coronavirus

· World Health Organization: Advice for the public

· Government of Canada: FAQ

· Government of Canada: Travel advice and advisories

· BC Centre of Disease Control: BC update

Please share this information with your staff and encourage them to check for important news and updates on our driver training web site dtcbc.com.”