Premier Doug Ford says drivers in Ontario will soon be able to skip the annual registration of their licence plates as the province works to make this process automatic.
Ford made the announcement at a news conference in Toronto on Tuesday morning.
“We are getting rid of that totally. Registering your vehicle, we did the first step, getting rid of the stickers. Now we are getting rid of the re-registration,” the premier said in response to a question about a surge in expired plates on Ontario roads.
“It will be automatically re-registered so people won’t have to worry about that at all.”
Ford’s announcement comes following a report in the Toronto Star that found there are currently more than one million expired licence plates in Ontario as more and more motorists forget to renew now that the process is free.
The Ford government previously eliminated all fees associated with the annual registration of licence plates in 2022.
As of March 13, 2022, drivers of passenger vehicles, motorcycles, mopeds and light commercial vehicles were no longer required to pay to renew their licence plates or put a sticker on them. The cost to renew licence stickers for the year was previously $60 in northern Ontario and $120 in southern Ontario.
In December, Ontario Provincial Police confirmed to CTV Toronto that there were hundreds of thousands of drivers across the province with unregistered licence plates following the move by the province. Drivers are currently required to renew their plates on their birthday each year.
When asked when renewals will officially be scrapped, Ford could not provide specifics but noted that it will happen “extremely soon.”
“It will be legislated when we get back,” he said.
