Saint John
Saturday February 8, 2014
Drop front licence plate
Robert Lockhart’s campaign to eliminate the front vehicle
licence plate is highly commendable, particularly with the provincial debt now
accumulating to some $10 billion for a population of less than one million. No
amount of savings can be too small to help relieve this astronomical
indebtness.
Public Safety Minister Bruce Northrup is on record as
stating that there are other priorities than dealing with this issue. But that
indicates that there is a price, either in time or money, to affect this and the
minister says that the authorities are working to find out all the facts. Utter
bureaucratic rubbish!
It’s a no brainer - the plate manufacturer simply stops
stamping out a second plate and the licence offices merely dispense the single
plate to vehicle owners. What could be simpler?
The argument that a two Iicence-plate system is a deterrent
to law offenders is also highly debatable. Many States and provinces have and
are switching to a single plate and there is no evidence that the apprehension
rate by the police in dual plate societies is any more successful. As for the
"gas and dash-at the pumps prevention argument, the rear licence only is
all the gas teller gets to see anyway as the vehicle escapes.
A crusade to get this off centre might be in order whereby New Brunswick drivers
could merely remove the front plates from their vehicles. Surely the “under
staffed" police authorities have more “priorities" than to monitor
this public protest.
Considering the province's financial state, along with the
major loss of highway tolls, this is just another redundant little luxury we
can't afford any-more.
Quebec, which has not had a two licence-plate system for
more than 50 years, also has a system whereby an annual sticker renewal is not
used, eliminating the cost of printing and dispersing millions of these
stickers every year to vehicle owners.
Bill Pony
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