Ontario drivers will no longer have to register their licence plates on an annual basis, following an announcement from Premier Doug Ford that the process will soon become automatic.
Ford was asked about the spike in expired licence plates on the province’s roads during a press conference in Toronto on Tuesday.
“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,” replied Ford. “It will be automatically re-registered so people won’t have to worry about that at all.”
According to the Ministry of Transportation, there are 1,015,139 licence plates currently expired in the province, as of last month.
The automatic licence renewal will only be for drivers who are “in good standing,” a spokesperson for the MTO told CTV News. In other words, those with tickets or outstanding toll bills will still be required to renew manually.
All fees associated with annual licence renewals were lifted in 2022 by the Ford government. However, once the province made the process free, there was an increase in drivers forgetting to renew, according OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt.
The process became free on March 13, 2022 for all passenger vehicles, motorcycles and light commercial vehicles.
Before the fees were lifted, drivers were required to pay $60 annually in northern Ontario and $120 in southern Ontario.
Drivers are currently required to renew on their birthday each year with a penalty of $500 for those caught driving with an expired license plate.
Ford did not comment on an exact date as to when automatic renewals will officially come into effect but did say it would happen “extremely soon.”
“It will be legislated when we get back,” confirmed Ford.
Ontario MPPs return to the legislature on Tuesday.
Ford went on to say that the changes are part of a broader bill which will include a mandate regarding a referendum on Ontario’s future carbon pricing plan.
