Ontarians’ safety shouldn’t be jeopardized by Ford’s license plate vanity project

MPP Jennifer French, NDP critic for Transportation and Highways, said Doug Ford needs to tell Ontarians how he’s going to handle the licence plate problem he created. The new PC Party blue plates are under review because they can’t be read under some lighting conditions, but the existing white ones are being sent back to the manufacturer to be destroyed.

“Doug Ford’s license plate vanity project was a problem before the new plates were even rolled out, but it’s now clearer than ever that Ford’s new, PC Party blue plates aren’t just a waste of public money, they’re a serious safety concern,” said French.

Drivers are raising concerns about the readability of the plates, and how that could impact reports of drunk or dangerous drivers, or help in the case of an amber alert.

But the backup plan may have already been destroyed. Despite the Ford government’s earlier claim that the existing white plates would continue to be issued until the supply was exhausted, QP Briefing reported on Jan. 31 that the government had changed course, and was sending all existing white plates back to the manufacturer to be destroyed.

“For the Ford government to scrap perfectly good white plates when their propaganda plates are proving to be problematic is not only a dumb waste of money, it’s also putting Ontarians at risk,” said French, who demanded in question period Tuesday that Doug Ford put a plan on the table to rectify the mess he made.

Ontario NDP