Letter: Be sure to de-register your unused licence plates, even though it’s not law

By Letter to the Editor on July 31, 2024.

Dear editor,

First, I apologize for the number of letters lately. Some reader’s are probably thinking, “Not him again!” However, the lesson learned here, in my view, is definitely worthwhile sharing.

I have received three bogus photo radar tickets in the mail from the Calgary Police Service in the past three weeks, (typically attributed to the registered owner’s licence plate).

Except, it wasn’t my vehicle and I haven’t driven in Calgary recently. I first thought it might just be a minor clerical mistake, or a records error, but finally, I suspected fraud.

So I visited the Medicine Hat Police Service. To my complete surprise, I learned that the licence plate charged was indeed once mine. Unknown to me, unused licence plate registrations never expire in Alberta.

I have owned and sold many used vehicles over roughly 70 years and have never once returned, destroyed, or cancelled a plate.

Fortunately, with the much appreciated guidance and assistance of the MHPS, I submitted a licence plate theft report, so police have now been officially alerted.

While Alberta recommends cancelling unused plates, destroying them, or turning them in to a vehicle registry, it is not a requirement. The message, and the lesson learned, is to de-register, return, or destroy old unused licence plates. Alternately, (and seriously), maybe Alberta should mandate the return of unused plates, as is required in Saskatchewan, or, as suggested by a friend, at least put an expiry date on unused plates.

Younger readers may remember parents or grandparents collecting licence plates, some displayed on garage walls. To me, this also illustrates the risk and potential consequences associated with keeping unused licence plates in Alberta, and I don’t think this is necessarily a widely known fact.

Gordon Briosi

Medicine Hat

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