Licence lament

A driver from another province who identifies as nonbinary contacted us after having difficulty changing their licence to an Ontario one. Their licence from the other province carried the non-binary gender marker “X” – an option that is also available for Ontario drivers.

However, they were told that in order to obtain the equivalent licence in Ontario, they would have to go to a DriveTest location and first declare a binary gender (that they did not identify with) to generate an Ontario licence number. Only once this had been completed could they then have the binary gender changed to X.

RESULT: We raised concerns with the Ministry of Transportation about the lack of fairness and inclusivity in this process. Ministry staff confirmed they were aware of the limitations of the licensing system, and that they are working on updating it so people will no longer be required to declare a binary gender to set up an Ontario driver’s licence number. We continue to follow up with Ministry staff on the status of these changes.