That sticker motorists in British Columbia have had to put on their licence plate once a year for more than five decades is now a thing of the past.
As of today (May 1), B.C. drivers are no longer required to display a renewal decal on their licence plate. Drivers can now choose to leave the decals on their licence plate or remove them. ICBC will also no longer issue decals for new registrations or renewals — effectively ending a proof of insurance program that spanned 52 years.
British Columbia now joins a handful of other Canadian jurisdictions to end the use of renewal decals including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. Ontario and Yukon both eliminated the use of decals earlier this year.
B.C. first introduced renewal decals in 1970 so that motorists would be able to visibly show that their vehicle was registered and insured. For about the first couple of decades, only one decal was required. In the early 1990s, that changed when the province began requiring motorists to display two decals – one showing the month and year of expiry and the other showing the day of expiry – on the rear licence plate.
In 2020, following numerous instances of licence plate decals going missing in the mail, the provincial government signalled a move towards ending the use of decals. Then in February of this year, the province formally announced that renewal decals would end in May, saying it would reduce incidents of theft and misuse and free up police resources.
Data available on ICBC’s website shows that there were 2,546,178 passenger vehicles registered in British Columbia in 2020 and according to Christopher Garrish, creator of bcpl8s.ca and author of Tales from the Back Bumper: A Century of B.C. Licence Plates, approximately 6 million decals are issued annually, costing the province an estimated $500,000.
Also as of Sunday, motorists can renew their vehicle insurance online.
RELATED: B.C. licence plate decals are going missing on Vancouver Island
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