The provincial government has released a timeline for replacing its new license plates, which critics said were difficult to see in the dark.
The move comes after law enforcement complained that the new plates were difficult to read at night, even in situations where there was ample artificial light.
The province said Friday that it will stop distributing the new plates by the end of Wednesday, March 4 in order to minimize the number of plates that have to be replaced.
As of Feb. 26, 71,000 of the deficient plates had already been distributed to Ontarians.
The government and 3M Canada have been working to produce a new “enhanced” plate that will correct the issue and they are testing it with law enforcement.
On March 5, the province will go back to distributing the old white embossed license plates until they are completely used up.
The corrected blue plates will be available starting on March 16 and Service Ontario centres will start distributing them as soon as the old white plates are used up. Those who get a white plate during the transition period will not have to replace them with a corrected blue plate, the province said.
Those who already have the blue plates will be contacted directly by mail with instructions on how to replace them, the province said.
“The government is pleased to have reached a resolution to this matter at no cost to Ontario taxpayers,” the province said in a statement. “We look forward to providing further updates in the coming days to inform Ontario drivers.”
