SANDY LAKE – There are 68 new G2-licensed drivers who completed their testing in a remote First Nation thanks to a successful new initiative.
Between May 12 and 14, four DriveTest examiners ran testing out of the radio station in Sandy Lake First Nation, 225 kilometres north of Red Lake.
In order for to make testing possible in the fly-in community, the First Nation had to order speed limit and other traffic signs and have them posted around the community, said Una Gott, Sandy Lake’s emergency first response team coordinator, who spent four years working to bring testing to the community.
“The cost alone just to fly out and do the test is a lot, it’s like $1,000 sometimes just for a flight one-way. That’s not including hotels or travel costs, so having DriveTest come to the community to do this in-community saves a lot of First Nation peoples these costs,” Gott explained.
“It saved them a lot of money, and it was one of the reasons why I worked so hard to get the drive test here, because I know that not a lot of people – especially in isolated reserves – they don’t have the means or the time to actually fly out and do all that just to get a driver’s license,” said Gott.
The community members who applied to take the road test ranged in ages from 16 to about 50 — and all 68 new drivers passed the test, a 100 per cent success rate.
“Giving the community this opportunity makes me feel really happy, just seeing everybody celebrate their wins it’s a good feeling” she said.
Most of the test-takers were from Sandy Lake but there were also four people who travelled from nearby Keewaywin First Nation.
While Keiran Sakakeep did have to make the short, 15-minute flight from Keewaywin to Sandy Lake, he said that this opportunity saved him thousands of dollars in travel to a city to take his test.
“I find it very important that they did this, because some people really don’t have the funds to do the kind of stuff to go out and do this test” said Sakakeep.
Sakakeep, like many of the new G2 drivers, also took his G1 test in Sandy Lake.
DriveTest visited the First Nation back in 2015 to deliver the G1 test to members of the community. The company returned in 2022 to deliver another G1 test, which is when representatives told Gott it would be possible for the community to host G2 road testing.
She was working as community liaison for Opiikapawiin Services LP at the time but was able to continue her work in bringing DriveTest to her community under her new role.
