Alberta licence plate redesign cancelled

In press conference at the Alberta legislature on Thursday, September 18, Premier Jim Prentice shows the current licence plate - saying 'This is Alberta's new licence plate'.

Premier Jim Prentice said Thursday that any plans to redesign Alberta’s licence plate had been cancelled.

After the province launched a survey over the summer to collect feedback on designs for Alberta licence plates, Premier Jim Prentice announced any further work on changing the plates, had been stopped.

Prentice said in a news conference that work done on the project had cost very little – but changing the licence plates for the 4.8 million vehicles in Alberta would have been $15 million.

In July, the provincial government suddenly brought three new designs for the licence plate forward, asking Albertans to choose one of them.

The idea sparked controversy, some upset over dropping the “Wildrose Country” slogan, others over the designs, but the controversy is something Prentice is hoping to do away with.

“Albertans have spoken very clearly that the priorities they have identified are health, education seniors and infrastructure, and changing the design of licence plates is not amongst those priorities,” Prentice said.

With files from Breanna Karstens-Smith