A new video is online:
Wednesday 19 June 2013
Wednesday 12 June 2013
We added "(FixNB)" to our YouTube video title. It should now be possible for the public to find us on a Goolge search. (http://youtu.be/XP1CFTJffa0)
We continue to work on our next videos. Thank you for your interest!
We continue to work on our next videos. Thank you for your interest!
Push to ditch front plate gains traction
Government-Provincial
Push to ditch front plate gains traction
By Tammy Scott-Wallace
Kings County Record
11 Jun 2013 04:26PM
SUSSEX — This province may be catching up with its neighbours and ditching the front licence plate. Bruce
Northrup, natural resources minister and Kings East MLA, said citizens
have cast such a sharp spotlight on the issue of added costs to have two
plates on a vehicle that the government is paying close attention.
The
move to eliminate the front plate drew a lot of hype the past week with
a YouTube video posted by citizens’ group FixNB. As of Monday
morning, the clip that calls on the province to move to a single-plate
system to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year reached
68,365 views. “We
need to keep this on the radar,” Northrup said. “It’s been an on again,
off again subject for years. It’s something we have to look closely at
and finally address once and for all within the next month or so. “It
does make sense if you look at P.E.I. and Nova Scotia, where they only
have one plate. We need more information but we’re going to get it.”
For
years one of Northrup’s constituents, JC Robert Lockhart, has been
pushing the province to move to a single plate. He is adamant the added
cost is poor fiscal management. He is not part of the FixNB group but he likes what they’ve been up to on the plate issue. The
Sussex area man says if the province is going to “nickel and dime” its
people, it’s only fair it takes advantage of the obvious money saver. “As it stands, the provincial government is missing out on a $370,000 opportunity,” Lockhart said. He is referring to the cost Saskatchewan claims it has saved annually since 2004 when it cut back on double licence plates.
For
the past couple governments Lockhart has been lobbying decision makers
to follow suit with the other Atlantic Canadian provinces by scrapping a
car’s front metal plate.
He
said “in this day and age” governments have to reduce every cent it
can. In the case of double plates, he insists, there are no clear
benefits “More than half of North America is going this way,” Lockhart said. “Two
costs more than one – I don’t care if it’s only a 10-cent difference,
I’m looking for savings. I’m just one individual who believes one
individual can make a difference.
“Going to one plate just makes good business sense.”
Lockhart
also said with other licenced vehicles like ATVS, trailers and
snowmobiles only requiring one plate in New Brunswick, the inconsistency
is confusing, senseless and costly.
He
has been reaching out via email to Public Safety Minister Robert
Trevors, Finance Minister Blaine Higgs and Northrup and says he has
received favourable responses.
Three
territories and six provinces have already phased out front licence
plates, leaving only four provinces with “obsolete front plates,”
according to the video entitled Drop Front Licence Plates in New
Brunswick.
Its
creators say the three-minute recording could be the first in a series
that calls for a complete reform of New Brunswick vehicle inspections
and a winter tire law. Last
week New Brunswick RCMP Cpl. Chantal Farrah deferred questions on a
single licence plate to the Department of Public Safety. Public
Safety spokeswoman Deb Nobes said in a statement that “there is a
two-plate rule in New Brunswick and, at this time, government is not
contemplating changing that.”
The recurring argument that the plates are first and foremost a means for law enforcement is refuted by Lockhart. “The
RCMP in Nova Scotia doesn’t need two licence plates but the RCMP in New
Brunswick do?” he said. “How many people do you see backing away from
an accident or backing away from a robbery?” The
video states many new automobiles are also now designed without mounts
for a front plate, and added money to provincial coffers could be used
to benefit essential services like health and education.
Monday 10 June 2013
From Telegraph Journal:
By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff
A movement to get rid of front
licence plates on New Brunswick-registered vehicles is gaining some
public support, but the province says the age-old practice of compelling
car owners in this province to put two plates on their vehicles isn’t
going away soon.
The main reason?
“Law enforcement tells us that we need them,” says Deborah Nobes, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety. “It helps them to find people and vehicles of interest.” Without that front licence plate, police looking for a specific vehicle would have to ride up behind it in order to find it, and having two licence plates on each vehicle means officers can find the car they’re looking for whether that car is coming or going.
And while it is not well known and not at all publicized, some RCMP cars in New Brunswick have built in cameras that automatically scan the plates of oncoming cars and alert the officer driving the police car of any problems which might compel that officer to pull over that car — an unpaid fine for example, or an arrest warrant for its registered owner.
A new movement known as FixNB has taken to the airwaves of YouTube with a short video suggesting that the front licence plate on New Brunswick-registered car is redundant, unsightly, expensive and next to useless. They argue the province could save money by eliminating the need to print the second plate and note that only four provinces and none of the three territories still mandate two-plated vehicles. FixNB is just the latest group to rally public sentiment against front licence plates; some drivers have lobbied for its elimination for years, particularly those who own vehicles whose front ends don’t easily accommodate a front licence plate.
FixNB might be correct that one plate is cheaper than two, but a move to a single plaque wouldn’t save much money, Nobes said Wednesday. The greater expense is in making the stamp that is used to imprint the plate, more so than making the plate itself, she said.
While she couldn’t immediately say how much might be saved by taxpayers by moving to a single licence plate, “it is not exorbitantly more to make two plates than it is to make just one.” Not everyone is lobbying to move to a one-plate system — other than law-enforcement officers, school bus drivers find the front plate handy for identifying bad drivers who illegally and dangerously pass school buses when their red lights are flashing.
Licence plates used to cost car owners $15 per pair just a few years ago, a price which jumped to $25 in 2009 and to $50 last year.
New Brunswickers also have the option of paying more for personalized plates bearing a message of their choosing — as long as the message is in good taste — or Conservation plates which direct a portion of the extra costs toward the Wildlife Trust Fund which in turn awards grants for conservation projects. Conservation plates a very popular with more than 33,000 bolted onto New Brunswick-registered vehicles, pumping more than $1 million into the fund every year.
There are also special plates available for everyone from firefighters to military veterans.
In many other jurisdictions, drivers also have the option of a wide number of novelty plates that direct all or part of the extra cost to causes of the plate-owners’ choosing. New Brunswick has been considering issuing such plates.
In Florida for example, car owners can show their support for more than 100 causes via their licence plates, with plates bearing the slogan Trees are Cool automatically sending $25 to the state’s arboricultural society, or plates bearing the name of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning sending the extra plate fees to a sports development initiative, to name just two. Even Nova Scotia offers plates bearing the Acadian flag, with the extra money funnelled to initiatives to develop Acadian and francophone causes.
While the province hasn’t dismissed the idea of expanding the types of plates available here, the issue remains under study and no decision is imminent.
Government-Provincial
N.B. won’t drop front licence plate
Times & Transcript Staff
10 Jun 2013 09:21AM
The main reason?
“Law enforcement tells us that we need them,” says Deborah Nobes, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety. “It helps them to find people and vehicles of interest.” Without that front licence plate, police looking for a specific vehicle would have to ride up behind it in order to find it, and having two licence plates on each vehicle means officers can find the car they’re looking for whether that car is coming or going.
And while it is not well known and not at all publicized, some RCMP cars in New Brunswick have built in cameras that automatically scan the plates of oncoming cars and alert the officer driving the police car of any problems which might compel that officer to pull over that car — an unpaid fine for example, or an arrest warrant for its registered owner.
A new movement known as FixNB has taken to the airwaves of YouTube with a short video suggesting that the front licence plate on New Brunswick-registered car is redundant, unsightly, expensive and next to useless. They argue the province could save money by eliminating the need to print the second plate and note that only four provinces and none of the three territories still mandate two-plated vehicles. FixNB is just the latest group to rally public sentiment against front licence plates; some drivers have lobbied for its elimination for years, particularly those who own vehicles whose front ends don’t easily accommodate a front licence plate.
FixNB might be correct that one plate is cheaper than two, but a move to a single plaque wouldn’t save much money, Nobes said Wednesday. The greater expense is in making the stamp that is used to imprint the plate, more so than making the plate itself, she said.
While she couldn’t immediately say how much might be saved by taxpayers by moving to a single licence plate, “it is not exorbitantly more to make two plates than it is to make just one.” Not everyone is lobbying to move to a one-plate system — other than law-enforcement officers, school bus drivers find the front plate handy for identifying bad drivers who illegally and dangerously pass school buses when their red lights are flashing.
Licence plates used to cost car owners $15 per pair just a few years ago, a price which jumped to $25 in 2009 and to $50 last year.
New Brunswickers also have the option of paying more for personalized plates bearing a message of their choosing — as long as the message is in good taste — or Conservation plates which direct a portion of the extra costs toward the Wildlife Trust Fund which in turn awards grants for conservation projects. Conservation plates a very popular with more than 33,000 bolted onto New Brunswick-registered vehicles, pumping more than $1 million into the fund every year.
There are also special plates available for everyone from firefighters to military veterans.
In many other jurisdictions, drivers also have the option of a wide number of novelty plates that direct all or part of the extra cost to causes of the plate-owners’ choosing. New Brunswick has been considering issuing such plates.
In Florida for example, car owners can show their support for more than 100 causes via their licence plates, with plates bearing the slogan Trees are Cool automatically sending $25 to the state’s arboricultural society, or plates bearing the name of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning sending the extra plate fees to a sports development initiative, to name just two. Even Nova Scotia offers plates bearing the Acadian flag, with the extra money funnelled to initiatives to develop Acadian and francophone causes.
While the province hasn’t dismissed the idea of expanding the types of plates available here, the issue remains under study and no decision is imminent.
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