Ontario’s new licence plates will be scrapped

Ontario’s new licence plates have been cancelled for being defective and the provincial government will cease production of them due to their legibility. Until the problem is fixed the province will return to the previous white-with-blue-lettering plates for the intermittent period.

Complaints from police officers and drivers had been pouring into the government over the inability to read the licence plates at night because of the blue on blue design.

Initially the Ford government had denied any issues with the new plates before eventually admitting that the aesthetic was in fact difficult to read and that they needed to be changed.

Service Ontario will stop issuing the plates the new plates by March 5, announced the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services. Instead they will return to the old white embossed plates however the current stock of those plates won’t be available for distribution until March 16, according to CTV News.

Drivers who had received the now defective blue licence plates will receive a letter in the mail complete with instructions on how to replace their blue one as well as a new licence plate validation sticker.

The blue plates were originally launched on February 1 with a total of 71,000 blue plates issued to date. According to the government they currently make up about one percent of the total 7.6 million active plates for the province.