The Ontario government has announced that there will be no further licence plate renewal fees for a number of different vehicle types, effective March 13, 2022. It took a week’s worth of asking for us to confirm whether that policy extends to YOM-plated vehicles. No one at the Ministry of Transportation or ServiceOntario seemed to know. But we finally received an answer from the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services: Yes, it does.
This means that YOM-plated vehicles no longer have to pay $120 annually through ServiceOntario to have plates renewed. Vehicle owners will still have to renew their plates each year; it simply won’t cost anything. Furthermore, there will be no more validation stickers for YOM-plated vehicles, as well as most other vehicle types (which unfortunately renders our now-former YOMtab product obsolete).
The new policy also affects users of restricted-use Historic Vehicle plates, which were renewed annually for $18. Historic Vehicle plates were a popular choice because they cost $102 less to validate each year over YOM licence plates. With the fees for both being axed, we are hopeful that there may be an uptick in YOM registrations.
But before we rejoice, we should also be aware: While other jurisdictions (for example, Alberta and Yukon) are doing away with validation stickers, it is a puzzling move for Ontario to discontinue their plate renewal fee structure. With over 8 million vehicles affected at $120 per year, that works out to a billion dollars of annual revenue that the province will no longer be collecting. Provincial spending has risen overall through the pandemic, and the government still needs this revenue. It remains to be seen exactly how the current government will proceed if it is re-elected, or whether this decision may be reversed by another elected party. Another shoe may still drop from somewhere.