Border officials say 'no issues' in reading new Ontario plates

TORONTO — The Canadian Border Services Agency says that it has not experienced any issues with the reading of the Ontario government’s new licence plates.

A frontline CBSA source told CP24 on Monday morning that the automated readers used at land border crossings were having trouble capturing some of the plate numbers, however in a statement issued on Monday afternoon a spokesperson for the CBSA confirmed that there have been “no issues” with the new plates so far.

Last week, the Ford government conceded the plates could not be read easily in nighttime conditions and agreed to recall and replace all 49,000 in circulation.

“We can confirm that no issues are being experienced with the Ontario licence plates,” the statement from the CBSA read. “However, in accordance with our standard procedures, when a licence plate number cannot be read by a Licence Plate Reader (LPR), or where LPRs are not available the plate number can be manually keyed in by the officer at the primary inspection line.”

The PCs revealed the new plates in the 2019 budget but only began issuing them to members of the public on Feb. 1.

A spokesperson from the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services said earlier on Monday that they had not "received any feedback from CBSA on the readability of Ontario's licence plates."

They said at the time the design, rollout and production of the new plates would save them $4 million. 3M Canada was contracted to produce the plates.

-- With files from Cam Woolley