What’s going on with Ontario’s failed blue licence plates?

You can still see them on thousands of vehicles in Ontario — those controversial blue licence plates that the Ford government discontinued just a few months after they were introduced.

It happened more than five years ago, when two weeks after drivers first started receiving the blue plates, in February 2020, an off-duty police officer in Kingston posted a picture of one at night in a well-lit parking lot showing it was “virtually unreadable.”

The province stopped issuing the plates in May of that year, after the government admitted there were problems, reverting back to old white-and-blue design.

Ok, this was taken off duty in a relatively well lit parking lot with my headlights on. Did anyone consult with police before designing and manufacturing the new Ontario licence plates? They’re virtuallly unreadable at night. pic.twitter.com/CoLxnp3iTQ

— Sgt Steve Koopman (@SgtKoopman) February 16, 2020

How many are still on the road?

So what’s going on with them now and how many are still on the road?

Praveen Senthinathan, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery, told INsauga.com that the white “yours to discover” plates are the ones that Ontario drivers continue to receive when registering a vehicle.

The blue plates haven’t been issued since the government backtrack in 2020.

Senthinathan said that there are currently 155,000 blue licence plates “in circulation,” with around 102,000 on the road.

“In circulation” refers to plates that have been issued and not returned to ServiceOntario, while the other figure refers to those that are currently attached to vehicles.

In February 2024, The Canadian Press reported that there were around 124,000 blue plates on the road.

The latest figure marks a decrease of 22,000 since then.

Around 193,000 were initially issued in 2020.

Overall, the current number of blue plates on the road is less than one per cent of the over 14.9 million active plates, Senthinathan said.

Are they still valid?

The Canadian Press reported in 2024 that after different plans were considered and amid a promise to get out of the mess without any additional cost to taxpayers, the government opted to let the blue plates disappear through attrition.

Senthinathan said that’s still the plan, with the government “naturally phasing out existing blue licence plates.”

That means, despite their readability issues under certain conditions, they continue to be valid.

A government source previously told The Canadian Press that there is no risk to public safety nor are there any plate readability issues for Highway 407 tolls.

If someone wants to exchange their blue plates, however, they can do so free of charge at a ServiceOntario location, Senthinathan said.

— With files from The Canadian Press