Vehicle registration plates of Ontario

In 1956, Canada, the United States, and Mexico came to an agreement with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the Automobile Manufacturers Association and the National Safety Council that standardized the size for licence plates for vehicles (except those for motorcycles) at 6 inches (15 cm) in height by 12 inches (30 cm) in width, with standardized mounting holes.[5] The 1954 (dated 1955) issue was the first Ontario licence plate that complied with these standards.

Image	Dates issued	Design	Slogan	Serial format	Serials issued	Notes
	1911	White serial on blue porcelain plate; vertical "ONT." and "1911" at left and right respectively	none	12345	1 to approximately 11500
	1912	Black serial on white flat metal plate; provincial coat of arms and "ONT 1912" at left	none	12345	1 to approximately 16500
	1913	Black serial on yellow flat metal plate; provincial coat of arms and "ONT 1913" at left	none	12345	1 to approximately 24000
	1914	Black serial on tan flat metal plate; provincial coat of arms and "ONT 1914" at left	none	12345	1 to approximately 33000
	1915	Dark blue serial on light green flat metal plate; provincial coat of arms and "ONT 1915" at left	none	12345	1 to approximately 43000
	1916	Black serial on white flat metal plate; provincial coat of arms and "ONT 1916" at left	none	12345	1 to approximately 64000
	1917	Black serial on white flat metal plate; provincial coat of arms and "ONT 1917" at right	none	12345	1 to approximately 78000
	1918	Dark blue serial on white flat metal plate; provincial coat of arms and "ONT 1918" at left	none	123456	1 to approximately 107000
	1919	Black serial on golden yellow flat metal plate; provincial coat of arms and "ONT 1919" at left	none	123456	1 to approximately 133000
	1920	Dark green serial on white flat metal plate; provincial coat of arms and "ONT 1920" at left	none	123456	1 to approximately 162000
	1921	Embossed orange serial on black plate with border line; "ONT 21" at left	none	123-456	1 to approximately 184-000	First embossed plate.
	1922	Embossed black serial on white plate with border line; "ONT 22" at left	none	123-456	1 to approximately 216-000
	1923	Embossed white serial on black plate; "ONT–1923" at bottom	none	123-456	1 to approximately 260-000
	1924	Embossed black serial on golden yellow plate; "ONT–1924" at bottom	none	123-456	1 to approximately 313-000
	1925	Embossed yellow serial on black plate with border line; "ONT 25" at left	none	123-456	1 to approximately 309-000
	1926	Embossed black serial on grey plate with border line; "ONT 26" at left	none	123-456	1 to approximately 415-000
	1927	Embossed black serial on buff plate with border line; "ONTARIO 1927" at bottom	none	123·456	1 to approximately 437·000	First use of the full province name.
	1928	Embossed black serial on yellow plate with border line; "ONTARIO 1928" at bottom	none	123·456	1 to approximately 446·000
	1929	Embossed black serial on grey plate with border line; "ONTARIO 1929" at bottom	none	123·456	1 to approximately 477·000
	1930	Embossed black serial on white plate with border line; "ONTARIO 1930" at bottom	none	A-1234	A-1 to Z-9999	Letters G, I and Q not used in serials.[6]
				AB-123	AA-1 to approximately PV-999
	1931	Embossed black serial on yellow plate; "ONTARIO 1931" at top	none	A·1234	A·1 to Z·9999
				AB·123	AA·1 to approximately OT·999
	1932	Embossed black serial on grey plate; "ONTARIO 1932" at top	none	A·1234	A·1 to Z·9999
				AB·123	AA·1 to approximately OB·999
	1933	Embossed black serial on yellow plate; "ONTARIO 1933" at top	none	A·1234	A·1 to Z·9999
				AB·123	AA·1 to approximately MZ·999
	1934	Embossed black serial on white plate; "ONTARIO 1934" at top	none	A·1234	A·1 to Z·9999
				AB·123	AA·1 to approximately NA·999
	1935	Embossed black serial on orange plate; "19 ONTARIO 35" at top	none	A·1234	A·1 to Z·9999
				AB·123	AA·1 to approximately OK·999
	1936	Embossed white serial on black plate; "19 ONTARIO 36" at bottom	none	A·1234	A·1 to Z·9999
				AB·123	AA·1 to approximately PK·999
	1937	Embossed white serial on red plate; "ONTARIO 1937" centred at top, with crowns to left and right	none	1·A·234 12·A·34 123·A·4		First base to feature a crown in any form.
	1938	Embossed orange serial on light blue plate; "19", crown and "38" centred at top; "ONTARIO" centred at bottom	none	1A234 12A34 123A4		Colours commemorate the Loyal True Blue and Orange Home.[7]
	1939	Embossed white serial on black plate; "19", crown and "39" centred at top; "ONTARIO" centred at bottom	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234
	1940	Embossed black serial on yellow plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1940" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234
	1941	Embossed green serial on white plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1941" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234
	1942	Embossed black serial on orange plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1942" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234
	1943–44	Embossed orange serial on black plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1943" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234		Revalidated for 1944 with windshield stickers, due to metal conservation for World War II.
	1945	Embossed white serial on blue plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1945" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234
	1946	Embossed white serial on black plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1946" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234
	1947	Embossed black serial on silver plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1947" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234
	1948	Embossed white serial on blue plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1948" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234
	1949	Embossed blue serial on white plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1949" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234 1234A
	1950	Embossed white serial on black plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1950" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234 1234A
	1951–52	Embossed blue serial on white plate; "19–ONTARIO–51" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234 1234A AB123		Revalidated for 1952 with windshield stickers.
	1953	Embossed white serial on blue plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1953" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234 1234A AB123
	1954	Embossed blue serial on white plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1954" at top	none	1A234 12A34 123A4 A1234 1234A AB123
	1955	As 1953 base, but with "1955" to right of crown	none	123·456 A12·345		First 6" x 12" plate.
	1956	As 1954 base, but with "1956" to right of crown	none	123·456 A·12345
	1957	Embossed white serial on black plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1957" at top	none	123·456 A·12345
	1958	Embossed black serial on white plate; "ONTARIO", crown and "1958" at top	none	123·456 A·12345
	1959	As 1957 base, but with "1959" to right of crown	none	123·456 A·12345
	1960	As 1958 base, but with "1960" to right of crown	none	123·456 A·12345
	1961	As 1957 base, but with "1961" to right of crown	none	123·456 A·12345
	1962	As 1958 base, but with border line, and with "1962" to right of crown	none	123·456 A·12345
	1963	As 1957 base, but with border line, and with "1963" to right of crown	none	123·456 A·12345
	1964	As 1958 base, but with border line, and with "1964" to right of crown	none	123·456 A·12345
	1965	Embossed white serial on blue plate with border line; "ONTARIO", crown and "1965" at top	none	123·456 A·12345 12345·A
	1966	Embossed blue serial on white plate with border line; "ONTARIO", crown and "1966" at top	none	123·456 A·12345 12345·A
	1967	Embossed white serial with crown separator on blue plate with border line; "19 ONTARIO 67" at top	"18 CONFEDERATION 67" at bottom	123-456 A12-345 123-45A		Issued as part of the Canadian Centennial celebration.
	1968	Embossed blue serial with crown separator on white plate with border line; "1968" and "ONTARIO" centred at top and bottom respectively	none	123-456 A12-345 123-45A
	1969	Embossed white serial with crown separator on blue plate with border line; "1969" and "ONTARIO" centred at top and bottom respectively	none	123-456 A12-345 123-45A
	1970	As 1968 base, but with "1970" at top	none	123-456 A12-345 123-45A
	1971	As 1969 base, but with "1971" at top	none	123-456 A12-345 123-45A
	1972	As 1968 base, but with "1972" at top	none	123-456 A12-345 123-45A

After 1973 Ontario ceased to issue plates annually. Instead, validation was indicated by means of stickers affixed to the plates. All Ontario licence plates issued since 1973 remain valid for display, provided they have been continuously registered.

In April 2019, the Government of Ontario announced that the plates would be redesigned. The plates' design includes a surficial laminate layer manufactured by 3M.[8] The plates have a two-tone blue background with white letters and numbers flanking a stylized white trillium, below which is the motto "A Place to Grow", taking inspiration from Ontario's unofficial anthem "A Place to Stand, a Place to Grow.[9] Issue of the new plates began on 1 February 2020. This design was scrapped on May 6, 2020.[10]

Image	Dates issued	Design	Slogan	Serial format	Serials issued	Notes
	1973–78	Embossed blue serial with crown separator on white plate with border line; "ONTARIO" centred at top; "73" at bottom left and full sticker box at bottom right	"KEEP IT BEAUTIFUL" centred at bottom	ABC-123	AAA-001 to NKJ-999	Letters G, I and Q not used in this serial format, and U discontinued after the LMU series (1976).[6]
	1978–82	As above, but without "73", and with partial sticker box at bottom right			NKK-001 to TMA-999
	1982–86	As above, but with no sticker box	"YOURS TO DISCOVER" centred at bottom		TMB-001 to ZZZ-999	Staggered registration introduced 1983, with each plate expiring in the same month as the registrant's birthday.
	1986–94			123-ABC	001-AAA to 999-VYH	Letters G, I, Q and U not used in this serial format.[6]
	1994–97	Blue on reflective white with screened crown separator; "ONTARIO" screened in blue centred at top	"YOURS TO DISCOVER" screened in blue centred at bottom	123-ABC	001-VYJ to 999-ZZZ	Narrower serial dies introduced in preparation for ABCD-123 format.
	1997–2020 2020–present			ABCD-123	AAAA-001 to CLZZ-999; CPAA-001 to CSHH-034 (as of January 30, 2021) FAAA-001 to FAAD-999	Letters G, I, O, Q and U not used in this serial format.[6]
	2008–20 2020–present		"TANT À DÉCOUVRIR" screened in blue centred at bottom			Alternative issue. Exclusive use of 'F' series of serials since April 2019.
	2020	White on reflective, two-hue blue with white stylized trillium separator and white crown placed bottom right; "Ontario" screened in white centred at top.[11][12] Plates are made of synthetic material and are not embossed.	"A PLACE TO GROW" screened in white centred at bottom.	ABCD-123	CMAA-000 to CMVA-000 (as of October 31, 2020[13])	The initial batch of these plates issued from February 1 to March 4 were recalled.[14] This design was later scrapped on May 6.[10]
	2020		"EN PLEIN ESSOR" screened in white centred at bottom[15]	ABCD-123	FAAE-000 to FAAM-000 (as of October 31, 2020)	Alternative issue.

Example of an Ontario Historic front plate.

Vehicles more than 30 years old and substantially unchanged since manufacture may qualify for a "Historic" registration.[18]

Annual fees are much lower ($18 vs $120 for a passenger car in 2019),[19] but historic vehicles may not be used as conventional transportation. They legally may only be driven to and from events and parades where the vehicle is on display, to garages for maintenance, and other similar use cases. Annual renewal stickers are affixed to the rear plate, as with passenger vehicles.

Historic plates are not to be confused with year-of-manufacture plates.[20]

Example of an Ontario trailer plate

All trailers in Ontario are considered separate vehicles and must have a permit and be plated. New owners of a trailer must register with the MTO within six days of purchase. They are then issued with a permit and a plate. Trailer plates are not renewed annually, but may be replaced if lost, damaged or stolen. Plates are affixed to the rear of the trailer. There is no front plate.[25]

All trailers, whether used by commercial operators or others, use a same model plate. Plates are blue on white with crown separator, in a pattern and colour similar to that of passenger vehicles, with the word "TRAILER" written vertically on the left of the plate. However, they do not follow the same numbering system as other vehicles.

In Ontario, motor vehicle dealers licensed under the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act use a single portable plate with the word "DEALER" on the left side and red alpha-numeric characters on a white background. It is for exclusive use by motor vehicle dealers only on motor vehicles owned as part of the dealer's inventory of vehicles for sale. It may also be used for private use vehicles that are owned as part of the dealer's inventory of vehicles for sale.[26]

Service providers, including anyone who repairs, customizes, modifies, manufactures or transports motor vehicles or trailers use yellow and black DLR series plates (Dealer and Service Plate).

A service plate may be used:

• on a trailer or motor vehicle other than a motorcycle or motor-assisted bicycle for purposes related to the repair, road testing, customization or modification of the vehicle, if the vehicle is in the possession of the person to whom the service plate is issued, or
• for the purpose of transporting the vehicle by a person engaged in the business of transporting vehicles, or
• for purposes related to the manufacturing or sale of a trailer, or
• for the purpose of towing the vehicle by a person engaged in the business of transporting vehicles, or
• to tow a vehicle to a location where its load will be removed or to an impound facility.

Private use of motor vehicles or trailers with a service plate is not permitted.

In 2016, an increase in the rate of defective plates combined with an increase in the number of registered vehicles led to the Ontario Ministry of Transport becoming unable to keep up with demand for plates. It placed an order for 100,000 units from the Waldale Irwin Holdson Group, the largest licence plate manufacturer in North America.[38] Plates are produced by the Waldale Manufacturing facility in Amherst, Nova Scotia.

Plates from the first batch of 35,000 can be identified due to the use of embossed letters and numbers from Nova Scotia plates, which differ in appearance from Ontarian fonts.[39]

In 2012, reports began to appear of plates deteriorating earlier than otherwise expected. The reflective layers detached themselves from the metal plate, making the plate unreadable. Approximately 1% of licence plates issued have this defect. The defect has appeared in both front and rear plates. Trilcor Industries and the MTO offer a five-year warranty on plates and will replace the defective plates at no cost.[40] Plate replacement for other reasons (theft, damage, wear, etc.) is done at a cost.

Conventional plates can be replaced "over-the-counter" at a licence office, but the complete process for personalized plates takes over six months.[41]

Driving with an illegible plate is an offence punishable by fine, under the Highway Traffic Act.[42]

In 2015, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services hired Canada's National Research Council to identify the root cause of licence plate de-lamination. The NRC's report indicated that the reflective material adhered poorly to the aluminium plates, and that embossing process stressed the materials to the point that the reflective layer would puncture and de-laminate. At that point, water and other contaminants could slip between the layers. Also, road de-icing materials contributed to the de-lamination. The report found that this problem was present in samples from all types of plates, except for motorcycle plates.

The report recommended that Trilcor work with its supplier of laminating layer to resolve the problem, and indicated that a thicker layer of material would likely perform better.[43]

• 
  Example of early deterioration of front Ontario Number Plate
• 
  Early deterioration on a rear plate. The aluminum base is visible where the reflective layer has fallen off.
• 
  Close-up view of early damage to a front licence plate of an Ontario car. The reflective layer can be seen de-laminating and separating from the metal base.
• 
  Close-up view of similar damage to the rear plate of the same car, indicating this problem is not confined to the front plates.
• 
  For comparison purposes, corrosion on this plate is due to age and wear, rather than a defective substrate.

Many vehicle owners place clear plastic covers over their licence plates to protect their already defective licence plates (2012) from premature deterioration.[44] According to Ontario's Highway Traffic Act Section 13.2, licence plate covers are considered an obstruction and are illegal in the province of Ontario.[45] In the rare event that the officer chooses to issue the citation, the offence carries a minimum fine of $85.[46] On the contrary, drivers operating a motor vehicle with defective (i.e. unreadable) number plates can be charged with the same offence.[45] This has left defective number plate owners with little choice but to obtain replacement plates from the MTO, orders which have taken months (or over six months for customised plates) to process.[44]

Several motorists sought other solutions to prevent their number plates from deterioration, such as placing the front plate on the dashboard instead of affixing it to the front bumper.[47] Others have omitted the front licence plate altogether since it is not uncommon to see out-of-province vehicles on Ontario roadways (many jurisdictions in North America do not require front plates). In most cases, vehicle owners who attempted the aforementioned solutions were convicted of the same offence (HTA section 13.2).[47]

Recalled 2020 plate design that is difficult to read at night.

On 15 February 2020, two weeks after the province began issuing plates with the new design, off-duty Kingston Police Sergeant Steve Koopman posted a photo on Twitter showing a vehicle with the new plate at night, stating that "they're virtually unreadable at night".[48] Government spokesperson Lisa Thompson, the Minister of Government and Consumer Services, stated in a news conference that the new design had undergone a "rigorous testing program", that the government had consulted with "key stakeholders" including law enforcement, and that the plates were not problematic.[48][49] She also criticized the earlier "Liberal plates",[48] referring to a batch of plates issued during a previous government that peeled. Thompson stated that manufacturing and quality control are the responsibility of 3M.[49] The redesigned plates also caused problems for photo radar cameras, which have difficulty reading the name of the jurisdiction. The name is rendered in a smaller font size than earlier plates.[49] The president of the Toronto Police Association stated that the organization had not been consulted on the new design.[48]

The Ford Government had insisted for days that there was not an issue with the plates; however, on February 20, it announced that 3M would make a "enhanced licence plate" to be available in less than three weeks.[50] On February 28, the government announced that the distribution of the defective plates would cease on March 4, that the enhanced plates would be ready by March 16 at "no cost to Ontario taxpayers", those who had already been issued the new plates will receive the enhanced version in the mail, and until the enhanced plates were ready, the government switched back to the previous plate design.[14][51] This design was later scrapped on May 6.[10]