OPP say there are hundreds of thousands of unregistered licence plates in Ontario

A photograph of an Ontario provincial licence plate with a renewal sticker is shown in Mississauga, Ont., on Tuesday, February 22, 2022. (The Canadian Press)

Hundreds of thousands of drivers across Ontario are apparently hitting the roads with unregistered licence plates following the elimination of licence plate stickers and renewal fees.

As of March 13, 2022, drivers of passenger vehicles, motorcycles, mopeds and light commercial vehicles no longer had to pay to renew their licence plates or slap a sticker on them either. The cost to renew licence stickers for the year was previously $60 in northern Ontario and $120 in southern Ontario.

“The Ontario government has made life more affordable and more convenient for over eight million vehicle owners by eliminating licence plate renewal fees,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation said.

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Even though the Doug Ford government scrapped renewal fees, it did not get rid of the requirement to renew the licence plate itself.

“It’s hundreds, and thousands, and tens of thousands,” Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told CP24 in an interview, in response to how many expired licence plates they have seen.

On patrol with other officers, Schmidt says that when they’re at a traffic stop, running their automatic licence plate reading system, they flag “a couple of dozen” vehicles with an unregistered status in a matter of minutes.

While this system also logs unlicensed drivers and other high-priority criminal type offenses, Schmidt says the continuous dinging sounds off alarm bells for officers.

“When it keeps dinging off and alerting officers to these unregistered light vehicles, you know, that is a concern and it’s something that could lead to enforcement action as well,” he said. “Obviously, it is a penalty, it’s a violation against the Highway Traffic Act to be operating without a properly registered vehicle.”

According to the ministry, the year before licence plate stickers were eliminated, in 2021, there were 372,438 unregistered plates. The year that they were scrapped, in 2022, there were 814,224, and as of June 2023, there were 573,974 in Ontario.

Schmidt says the staggering numbers could be due to the fact Ontarians no longer receive reminders to renew their licence plates in the mail.

“I think historically, people always got that letter in the mail, usually before their birthday, they would get their renewal notice and they will have to go into ServiceOntario, or online, to do the registration,” Schmidt said.

“You can sign up for text message or email reminders, what we recommend everyone to do.”