Blame Harris for licence rule change
Re Licence suspensions cause turmoil, April 8 One of the people featured in Norris McDonald’s piece complained that notices of suspension should be sent by registered mail.
Up until Mike Harris’s provincial Conservatives came to power in 1995, that is exactly what happened. Mike Harris came to power on the promise, kept, to get rid of photo radar.
What was not so publicized was what he did to raise revenues. The system of mailing out registered letters advising drivers that their licence would be suspended on a given date unless their outstanding fines were paid was scrapped. Instead, the Highway Traffic Act was amended to allow for regular mail to be sent. The letter is deemed to have been received seven days after mailing, unless the person can satisfy a court they did not receive it.
The letter indicates that unless the suspension was for medical reasons, there is a $198 reinstatement fee. This means you no longer have the opportunity to avoid the suspension by paying the fines before the suspension takes effect. If you pay the fine before a request for suspension is sent to the ministry, but not the extra costs for late payment, the suspension will still take effect because the court takes the costs before applying the payment to the fine so, there may be $5 or $20 left on the fine. Therefore the court will notify the Ministry of Transportation to suspend the licence.
If the reinstatement fee is not paid, the licence is cancelled and you end up driving without a licence, which, while not as serious as a suspended licence, as noted in the article, it could have serious insurance consequences. Stephen Parker, president, Ontario Paralegal Association, Vaughan The same thing happened to my son last year. Apparently he had gotten a speeding ticket in Guelph. He was moving jobs and cities and the ticket fell through the cracks.
It appears that if the ticket is not paid on time, the province suspends your licence, hence your insurance, without notification.
I had always believed the government would treat its citizens fairly. But our government deliberately puts its citizens at potential financial risk, due to any kind of accident, or potential loss of employment, simply to collect another fee. Michael Fitzmaurice, Port Elgin, Ont.