Ontario can sit and wait on blue numbers

Premier Doug Ford's government plans to take blue license plates off the roads four years after learning they are barely visible at night – and the plan is to sit back and wait.

According to the Canadian press, the blue numbers will disappear through obsolescence.

The approach has been in place since November 2022, with a senior official not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The decision was not made public until the province confirmed its approach to The Canadian Press this week after more than a year of fighting the release of the records through freedom of information requests.

“After careful consideration of possible options for the implementation of the special collections program, the Ontario government has decided to phase out the existing blue plates,” Matthew D'Amico, spokesman for Community and Business Services Delivery Minister Todd McCarthy, wrote in a statement. .

“While the blue plates are still valid, anyone wishing to exchange a blue plate can do so for free at a ServiceOntario centre.”

The government's website still tells drivers that holders of blue plates will receive instructions at a “future date” on how to replace them.

The province has explored various options, a senior government source said, including exchanging plates by mail, but all options have created burdens for consumers, risks such as theft and costs of between $2.5 million and $3 million.

The government was committed to getting out of the blue number mess at no extra cost to taxpayers, so the decision was eventually made to go with natural attrition. There is no threat to public safety and there are no license plate reading issues for the 407 tollway, the source said.

Ford's Progressive Conservatives released a new look at their 2019 budget, which they accused of politicizing and turning the slates Tory blue.

Law enforcement officials have expressed concern about the plates because they are difficult to read in certain situations, and officers need to see the plates clearly and distinctly.

Joe Couto, a spokesman for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, previously said chiefs want to see the plates on roads “as soon as possible.”

The government did not contact the chiefs for information about their plan to exit the natural period, but Couto said they would continue to implement if asked.

“We told the government that there are always concerns about the blue plates about the safety aspects of it, and that's what we're concerned about,” Couto said.

“How the government deals with the boards is entirely up to them. If they choose evolution and revolution, so be it.'

As of this month, there were 124,000 blue plates on the road, the government said, or less than one percent of active plates. About 193,000 were produced in 2020.

NDP critic Tom Rakocevich said the blue signs on the roads continue to serve as a visual reminder of the mistakes and backsliding this government has committed.

“Doing nothing is not a plan, and it took them two years to announce they were going to do nothing,” he said. “They need to go ahead and do what it takes to get these boards out of the way.”

In November 2022, the Canadian Press requested documents about plans to replace the blue plates through freedom of information laws, but the government rejected it on several grounds, including through a government consultation.

He also refused to release the documents on the grounds that their release would lead to premature disclosure of a political decision that had been reached but not yet announced.

“The final policy decision on the specific options for replacing the blue license plates will be available to the public in the future,” the government wrote in an August 2023 letter to the Information and Privacy Commissioner after a complaint by the Canadian Press.

“The Ministry determines policy decisions and publishes them according to its own deadlines … The publication of information at issue in this appeal prematurely publicizes the Ministry's pending policy decision, since the Ministry has already decided that it does not want to publish. political decision”.

On February 15, 2020, two weeks after drivers first started getting blue plates, an off-duty police officer in Kingston, Ont., posted a photo of someone in a well-lit parking lot at night, revealing it was “in practice.” unreadable”.

The government and the Minister of Human Services at the time said the new license plates were fine, but soon acknowledged there were problems, and the province reverted to the old blue-and-white design in May of that year and stopped issuing them.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on February 14, 2024.