South Simcoe Police Chief Andrew Fletcher has clarified his stance around the province's decision to not have drivers renew their licence-plate stickers.
Earlier this month, Fletcher expressed his concern over removing a tool the police use to identify offenders. At a recent Bradford West Gwillimbury/Innisfil Police Services Board meeting, he cleared up his comments after backlash from some people in the community.
In late February, Premier Doug Ford confirmed the province would no longer require stickers for licence plates in an effort to save Ontarians money by eliminating renewal fees. This change began March 13 and applies to passenger vehicles, light-duty trucks, motorcycles, and mopeds.
Although the scrapping of renewal fees and stickers on plates will save Ontarians money — and is expected to cost the government $1 billion annually — police services have questioned the decision.
By eliminating the need for plate stickers while keeping the need to renew plates, police are put in a tougher position to identify and pull over people driving with expired plates.
“It’s not that we don’t support the cost savings of the community,” said Fletcher. “The government showing their effort to save taxpayers dollars on the renewal of their sticker is great for the community. What I take issue with, from a policing perspective, is that every member is still required to renew your licence plate, they’re just not sending you a sticker.
"So, if they’re going to go through that process and engage with the community every year to do that, then send them the sticker so they can put it on their licence plate so we can continue to use that tool," he added.
“I appreciate the savings and people don’t want to pay for the stickers, but it’s a tool that’s so valuable to the police service. If they’re eliminating it completely, then we would take no issue, but they’re still asking you to renew. You can’t get your sticker renewed if you have outstanding fines, so if they’re doing all that administrative work, then send that person the sticker.”
As part of the removal of stickers, Fletcher said the government has opened up the opportunity to implement automatic licence-plate readers (ALPRs). The technology allows for a quick search that can identify if the driver of the vehicle is driving with expired plates, has an outstanding issue, or even if the vehicle was stolen.
South Simcoe Police Service currently have two vehicles with ALPRs and hope to add more, but they can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000.
“They sent a survey (regarding ALPRs) to police services across the province,” Fletcher said. “We’ve completed the survey and we’ve asked for a number of ALPRs for our vehicles.”
Previously, Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin said this could impact municipal fines as there would be no consequences for those who don’t pay bylaw tickets, but after looking into it, that’s not the case, she says.
“My concern was that there wouldn’t be a tool to have people pay their outstanding fines,” Dollin said. “Since then, I’ve learned that they won’t renew your licence if you have unpaid fines. My fears were unfounded.”
Following that point, Fletcher reiterated there’s no real difference with the process. And though it saves Ontarians money, it’s going to have a larger impact on policing.
“That’s my issue,” he said. “Nothing has changed in the process other than not issuing the sticker. There seems to be a disconnect on why this only applies to some and not all vehicles."
It doesn’t apply to heavy commercial vehicles and snowmobiles.
Given the negative comments sent to Fletcher and South Simcoe Police Services regarding the misunderstanding on the stance on licence-plate renewals, Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor Rob Keffer praised Fletcher for trying to help residents understand.
“It’s very unfortunate the way the whole not having to pay for a licence plate sticker was rolled out,” he said. “The general public just didn’t realize you still have to renew your licence plate; you just don’t have to pay for it. It’s unfortunate that the chief got caught in the middle of it while trying to educate people.
“The simple solution would be to still have a sticker on the licence plate so that everyone knows when they’re up to date. The chief’s comments were well-founded," Keffer added.
Fletcher and the police board emphasized on numerous occasions throughout the discussion that they’re not taking issue with removing licence plate fees and saving taxpayers money, but the problem is that the entire process is being kept the same while removing an important tool for policing the issue.
