MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to 'LETTER: Eliminating licence plate stickers will create more dangerous roads' published on Feb. 24.
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Dear Editor,
I read with interest the letter-writer's understanding of Doug Ford's proposal to eliminate the yearly cost of plate stickers.
So after doing much research on the net, including reading the government press release, here are the facts:
1. Your licence plate will have to be renewed every two years — they are saying at no cost to the consumer. If you have any outstanding parking tickets, violation tickets, Highway 407 charges, etc., your plate will not be renewed. You will then be required to pay any outstanding balances before renewal is granted — same as the sticker is now.
2. If an officer is driving behind you or stops you for whatever reason, the first thing they do is run your plate. Checking your plate will tell them the following: suspensions, outstanding tickets, insurance carrier, licensed driver and, most of all, everything about you and the vehicle. That's the way it has always been.
The letter-writer implies that the elimination of the sticker allows bad drivers to get away with not paying their fines. You can't be serious. Do you really think that any government would forgo the revenue?
If you feel guilty about getting the refund, send it to me. Or donate to a charity in the name of Doug Ford.
Doug Baumken
Wasaga Beach
Wasaga Beach
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