OHTA.ca

Here's the situation for a friend of mine:

G2 license holder, eligible to take his exit test for a full G license

charged with stunt driving (speeding 110 km/h in a 50 km/h zone)

offered a guilty plea to speeding (49 km/h over)

Normally its a no-brainer, and it probably still is, but my concern is that my friend would be subject to the escalating sanctions for G2 drivers convicted of 4 point HTA offences.

O. Reg. 340/94 states:

"novice driver" means a person classed as such under section 29;

29. (1) A driver of a motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle or a motor assisted bicycle, on a highway shall be classed as a novice driver in Class G1 or G2...

9. (1) The Registrar shall, after giving notice, suspend or cancel the drivers licence of a novice driver as provided in subsection (2) in the following circumstance:

s. 9(3)(3) covers the circumstance of a single 4 demerit point offence.

My question is two-fold. 1) As a practical matter, has anybody encountered a similar situation. What does the MTO do when a person has a G2 on the offence date but obtains his full G prior to the conviction being entered?

2) The way I read the law, s. 9(1) above only gives the MTO the right to suspend a novice driver's license. If the person gets a full G, then the driver no longer has a novice driver's license and the MTO wouldn't have the power to suspend the license. This is probably why the legislature enacted s. 10(6) which reads:

10. (6) If the holder of a Class G1, G2, M1 or M2 drivers licence is convicted of a third offence described in subsection 9 (3) and subsequently becomes a fully licensed driver in Class G or M, as the case may be, before the Registrar receives notice of the persons third conviction, the Registrar shall not cancel the persons drivers licence as described in clause 9 (2) (c) but shall instead suspend the licence for 90 days.

If the legislature had the power to cancel the Full G license then there would have been no need to enact section 10(6) above. It follows that the MTO doesn't have power to suspend a full G license by these regulations unless that power is explicitly granted.

Thoughts?

I'd think that since the penalty is being applied to a fully-licenced driver, there should be no suspension in this case. But, that's just my opinion, take it for what it's worth.

It is by offence date and class of licence at that time. So stop was on a G2, the G will be suspended for 30 days.

read carefully - sec 10(6) ..if it is a 3rd time for a 4 point offence the licence will not be "cancelled" (which would be for a G2) but the G licence will be "suspended" for 90 days