Ontario became the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce automatic licence plate renewals in a change that started on July 1, 2024. Pictured: MPP Donna Skelly and Ministers Todd McCarthy and Prabmeet Sarkaria. Photo Credit: Donna Skelly/X.
Automatic licence plate renewal is now in effect for the more than eight million Ontario drivers.
Ontario became the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce automatic licence plate renewals in a change that started on July 1, 2024.
The government says that they are saving vehicle owners more than 900,000 hours every year in renewing plates automatically.
Licence plates for passenger vehicles, light-duty trucks, motorcycles, and mopeds will now renew automatically 90 days before expiry if a vehicle owner has valid insurance and no outstanding fees or tolls.
If a licence plate cannot be renewed automatically then the vehicle owner will be notified and required to manually renew online or in person.
The move follows a March 2022 policy change when the Government of Ontario eliminated licence plate renewal fees and licence plate stickers.
The elimination of renewal fees saves vehicle owners $120 a year in Southern Ontario and $60 a year in Northern Ontario.
However, when the government eliminated fees in 2022, it also eliminated mail notifications, while still requiring drivers to renew their vehicle licences annually online.
With notifications eliminated but manual online renewal still required, it ended up that more than one million Ontarian motorists were forgetting to renew and driving around with expired plates.
As a result, some vehicle owners faced fines of as much as $1,000 under the Highway Traffic Act.
But with the new automatic renewal system in place, the government has eliminated that problem and also brought back mail notifications for those whose plates cannot be renewed.
Those whose plates cannot be renewed for various reasons will receive paper notifications by mail 90 days before expiry and again at 72 hours after expiry.
Mail notification will not be sent if a vehicle owner has opted in for ServiceOntario digital notifications instead via email, text, or voicemail.
Those who have digital notifications enabled and have plates that cannot be renewed automatically will have messages sent at 90, 45, and 10 days before expiry, and again at 72 hours after expiry.
Hamilton MPP Donna Skelly, who serves the riding of Flamborough-Glanbrook, said that automatic licence plate renewals are part of the government’s plan “to make life easier and more convenient for Ontarians.”
She continued, “We will always work to remove red tape and make services more accessible to all.”
The move was strongly supported by vehicle industry groups, including the Motor Vehicle Retailers of Ontario (MVRO) and Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC).
MVRO Director of Government Relations Frank Notte said that “Ontario’s 1,100 new car and truck retailers applaud Premier Ford and his government for driving efficiencies and removing unnecessary bureaucracy for vehicle owners.”
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
