Ontario government has announced that it is scrapping the renewal of license plates and stickers for the owners of passenger vehicles, light duty trucks, motorcycles and mopeds, effective from March 13, 2022. This ruling will help vehicle owners save about $120 a year and it will benefit nearly eight million vehicle owners in the province. The reason cited by the Premiers office is to make life more affordable for its citizens as the cost of living has gone up in the recent months, due to the pandemic.
The government is also about to pass a legislation to refund the license plate renewal fee for amount paid since March 2020 (i.e. the last two years) to vehicle owners.
Vehicle owners will receive a cheque in the mail towards the refund amounts, starting at the end of March and through the month of April.
To receive a refund cheque, vehicle owners will need to confirm that their address information on their vehicle permit or driver’s licence is up-to-date at Ontario.ca/AddressChange by March 7, 2022, and pay any outstanding fees, fines or tolls. For more information or assistance with changing an address, vehicles owners can call Service Ontario’s dedicated line at 1-888-333-0049.
Vehicle owners will still be required to renew their licence plate every one or two years at no cost. This is to verify that their vehicle insurance is valid and that any outstanding traffic or municipal fines and highway tolls are up to date. The government is to develop a new, more user-friendly process that will continue to validate automobile insurance requirements and support law enforcement efforts and collect traffic/municipal fines and unpaid Highway 407 tolls.
Under this proposal, renewal fees will also be eliminated for passenger, light duty commercial vehicles, motorcycles and mopeds that are owned by a company or business. However, no refunds will be given for the period of March 2020 to March 2022.
Renewal fees for licence plate stickers for heavy commercial vehicles and snowmobiles remain unchanged.
Minister of Transportation will introduce an advanced Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology that can read thousands of license plates per minute allowing the police department to process more information on licence plates. It will also have the capability of capturing vehicles of interest such as amber alerts, drivers with a suspended licence, and stolen vehicles. This will assist the police department to improve public safety and strengthen roadside law enforcement efforts across the province.
