Province scraps plans for redesigned licence plates
‘Yours to Discover’ white embossed plate, dating from 1973, gets new life
Premier Doug Ford has driven his flawed double-blue licence plates to the scrapyard.
On Wednesday, Ford made official what the Star first revealed March 6: the Progressive Conservatives’ illegible blue plates are being dumped.
“I’m not putting any more resources to this,” the premier told reporters.
“Look, these plates have not been top of mind for me over the last little while,” he said, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic that has monopolized the government’s attention for almost two months.
His office said in a statement that, “after thorough testing by law enforcement and other key stakeholders, we are following their advice and will not be moving forward with the new plate for passenger vehicle use.
“Under very specific lighting conditions, stakeholders identified visibility issues due to glare. As a result, further work is needed. As such, the premier has decided that the redesign of the new licence plate will no longer proceed,” the premier’s office said.
“Going forward, we will be using the ‘Yours To Discover’ white embossed licence plate. The delamination issue with this plate has been resolved by the manufacturers with a fiveyear guarantee on the product.”
Some 145,000 blue plates, which were likened to a Q-tip box design, have been manufactured with the slogan “A Place To Grow.”
“At this time, we are exploring all options to use these plates where they would be appropriate for an alternative use, such as trailers or recreational vehicles. In the interim, we will be exhausting all remaining passenger plates that we have in stock, including the existing supply of blue licence plates,” Ford’s office said.
The premier insisted the debacle would not cost taxpayers a penny. The climbdown means the motorists will be sticking with the familiar white design in place since 1973.
The double-blue plate was a signature of then treasurer Vic Fedeli’s poorly received April 2019 budget.
Ford was so unhappy with that spending plan — which featured hidden cuts to services, including municipal public health funding, that hurt the Tories politically — he replaced Fedeli with Rod Phillips just 10 weeks later.
That cabinet shuffle last June was well before problems with the blue plates erupted in February. The flaw became exposed when a Kingston police officer tweeted a photo of one plate that was impossible to read due to glare. Government and Consumer Minister Lisa Thompson initially denied there was anything wrong and dubbed the current white design with blue letters and numbers as “Liberal plates,” even though the design was introduced by the Progressive Conservative government of Bill Davis. Thompson then backtracked and blamed the problem on manufacturer 3M Canada, which is covering the cost of the failed redesign.
The actual cost is protected by a nondisclosure agreement signed by the government and the company. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has asked Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk to investigate how the fiasco unfolded.