Ontario and British Columbia
Can I drive like this on a novice licence?
It matches what you tell it against the published conditions for four licence stages, and names the rule and the Act behind every answer. Where a rule exists and we do not hold the detail, it says so instead of guessing.
Answer seven questions
Two provinces are written up here. The others hold graduated stages too, and their conditions are not in our sources yet.
Both provinces here use those hours, and both state them in the rules our questions cite.
The Ontario overnight passenger limit applies to a G2 driver aged nineteen or under, so this changes the answer there.
The Ontario G2 passenger limit changes at six months, so this one matters more than it looks.
Pick a stage and the requirement for it appears here.
Immediate family sit outside both counts, because that is the exception written into the passenger rules in both provinces here.
Nothing picked yet
Pick the province and the stage you hold, and the conditions attached to it appear here.
This page answers from the conditions our data layer carries, and from nothing else. It is not legal advice and it does not replace what your licensing body publishes. Where a rule exists and we do not hold the detail, the answer above says so instead of filling it in.
How the answers are put together
Each rule is a record, not a paragraph somebody wrote from memory.
Every condition below sits in a table with the Act it comes from and the licensing body we read it from. The tool matches your answers against that table and reports what it finds, one rule at a time, so you can see which condition stopped the drive rather than being told no with no reason attached.
Two provinces are written up: Ontario at G1 and G2, British Columbia at the learner and novice stages. Both use the same overnight hours, and both make immediate family an exception to the passenger limit, which is why those two questions look similar on the form and give different answers underneath.
The one rule most people get wrong is the Ontario overnight passenger limit, because it is not one rule. It changes at six months, it applies only to a G2 driver aged nineteen or under, immediate family are not counted, and a fully licensed driver with four years of experience in the front seat removes it. Four moving parts, and getting any one of them wrong changes the answer.
A worked example, and the same drive five months later
An eighteen year old G2 driver, three passengers who are all nineteen or under and none of them family, at one in the morning, driving alone.
Three months into the G2
No. In your first six months at G2 the overnight limit is one passenger aged nineteen or under, and you are over it. Immediate family do not count towards the limit, and a fully licensed driver with four years of experience in the front seat lifts it.
No. One condition of your licence stops this drive.
Eight months into the G2, everything else the same
Yes on this point. Past six months at G2 the overnight limit is three passengers aged nineteen or under, and this drive is inside it.
Yes. Nothing in the conditions we hold for this stage stops this drive.
Nothing about the driver, the passengers, the hour or the road changed between those two. Only the number of months did. That is the part worth remembering, because it is the part that gets argued about in a parking lot at one in the morning.
What this tool leaves out, and why
A rule we cannot state is a rule we do not state
- How many passengers a British Columbia learner may carry. Our sources record that the limit exists, not what it is.
- Whether the British Columbia novice stage carries night hours of its own. Our sources carry the night restriction for the learner stage only.
- Demerit point thresholds, fines and suspension lengths in either province. Those change, and we hold no sourced figure for any of them.
- Every province and territory outside Ontario and British Columbia. The stages exist elsewhere, and the conditions attached to them are not written up here yet.
Leaving a rule out is uncomfortable, because the reader who needed it goes away with nothing. The alternative is worse. A confident answer that turns out to be a half remembered figure is the reason people end up arguing with an officer at the roadside, and the tool would have been the one that told them it was fine.
Everything above will be filled in as each condition is sourced from the body that publishes it. Until then the gaps are printed rather than hidden.
Every stage this checker reads
Four licence stages, each carrying the Act its conditions sit under and the licensing body we read them from. The checker matches your answers against these records and reports what it finds, one rule at a time.
- Ontario, G1 learner licenceG1
Conditions read from Highway Traffic Act (Ontario). A supervising driver at this stage needs a full G licence, at least four years of driving experience, a place in the front passenger seat, and their own blood alcohol below the legal limit.
Ontario Ministry of Transportation, G1 licensing rules and DriveTest fee scheduleverified 2026-08-27 - Ontario, G2 probationary licenceG2
Conditions read from Highway Traffic Act (Ontario). No supervising driver is required at this stage.
Ontario Ministry of Transportation, G1 licensing rules and DriveTest fee scheduleverified 2026-08-27 - British Columbia, Class 7L learner licence7L
Conditions read from Motor Vehicle Act (British Columbia). A supervising driver at this stage needs an age of at least twenty five, a valid full licence, and a place in the front passenger seat beside the learner.
ICBC published graduated licensing and knowledge test informationverified 2026-08-27 - British Columbia, Class 7N novice licence7N
Conditions read from Motor Vehicle Act (British Columbia). No supervising driver is required at this stage.
ICBC published graduated licensing and knowledge test informationverified 2026-08-27
What this checker ignores
Assumptions and limits
- It covers the two provinces written up above and no others. A stage that is not on the list is not in the tool, and nothing is inferred from a neighbouring province.
- It reads the conditions attached to a licence stage. It does not know about a condition a court added, a medical restriction, or a term of a probation order.
- It is a reading of published conditions against what you told it, not advice about your own licence. Your licensing body is the authority on that.
Questions people ask about novice conditions
Can a G2 driver carry friends after midnight?
It depends on your age and on how long you have held the G2. For a driver aged nineteen or under the limit is one passenger aged nineteen or under in the first six months and three after that, immediate family are not counted, and a fully licensed driver with four years of experience in the front seat lifts it altogether.
Ontario Ministry of Transportation, G1 licensing rules and DriveTest fee scheduleverified 2026-08-27Do the passenger limits count brothers and sisters?
No. Immediate family are the exception written into the passenger condition in both provinces on this page, so a car full of your own siblings is treated differently from a car full of friends.
Ontario Ministry of Transportation, G1 licensing rules and DriveTest fee scheduleverified 2026-08-27Can a G1 driver use a 400 series highway with a parent beside them?
Not unless that parent is a licensed driving instructor. An accompanying driver who meets every other requirement still does not open those roads, and the same goes for the other high speed routes such as the Queen Elizabeth Way.
Ontario Ministry of Transportation, G1 licensing rules and DriveTest fee scheduleverified 2026-08-27Does a supervisor let a British Columbia learner drive at night?
No. The learner night restriction is one a supervisor does not lift. Plan the drive so it falls outside those hours, or have the supervisor take the wheel.
ICBC published graduated licensing and knowledge test informationverified 2026-08-27Why does the checker sometimes refuse to answer?
Because the rule exists and we do not hold the detail. The clearest case is the British Columbia learner passenger limit: our sources record that a limit applies and not what it is, so the tool says that rather than printing a number nobody can trace.
ICBC published graduated licensing and knowledge test informationverified 2026-08-27Is this legal advice?
No. It is a reading of published conditions against what you told it, and your licensing body is the authority on your own licence. Where the answer matters, check it with them before you drive.
Where to go next
How graduated licensing works
The stages behind these conditions, what each one lets you do, and how long each is held.
The G1 knowledge test
The test that puts the first set of these conditions on your licence, with a free simulation of it.
Work out your Ontario dates
How long each stage lasts, counted forward from the day you passed the knowledge test.
Sources
Ontario Ministry of Transportation, G1 licensing rules and DriveTest fee schedule
Verified 2026-08-27
ICBC published graduated licensing and knowledge test information
Verified 2026-08-27