license plates

Section 7 of the HTA requires plates to be displayed in the "prescribed manner" in accordance with the regulations which can found in Reg 628, specifically section 9 (3):

The number plates for a motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle or a motor assisted bicycle, shall be attached to and exposed in a conspicuous position on the front and rear of the motor vehicle

The fact that your wife brought it back from the US suggests there may be a few other things not in compliance with Canadian law. In which case you may have been very lucky to only get only this one ticket. You may wish to do a thorough check before you continue to drive this vehicle.

After my wife retrurned to Canada, the vehicle had to go through a "RIV" registrar of imported vehicles -"Inspection" process which requires the vehicle to be inspected by a certified apponted "RIV" garage and meet/exceed all canadian/Ontario standards such as Daytime running lights, bumpers, seatbelts etc. (they have a checklist to go through-Front license plate is not on the checklist...) before the vehicle can be licensed in ontario/canada. "It passed" and is also on the list of Admissible vehicles which enables it to be imported. It also had a "safety" inspection performed on top of this in order to be able to license the vehicle(again front license plate not on the checklist.)

Thanks for the reply

Actually, I just got thinking....If you get a "temporary" license permit for a vehicle it is a sticker which is mounted inside the front windshield....No rear plate and not front plate mounted on bumpers. Why is this okay...?

Also, Auto Dealers when using/transporting/driving a vehicle have no front plate either only a rear plate is attached....??????Little bit of a contradiction to the H.T.A. ?

A licence plate has nothing to do with the safety of the vehicle.

A "10-day permit" and "dealer plates" are temporary, not permanently attached to a vehicle like normal plates. The HTA also specific where temporary permits and plates must be attached. The temporary is also paper and would not last in various weather conditions.

Since the issuance of "temporary" validation stickers ( "T"), I have not seen a 10-day permit.

As TC was saying, permanent plate has to be attached on both front and rear of vehicle. Wording seems to imply attached to the front grille or bumper. You could try seeking a reduced fine or plea-bargaining to something less, if the Prosecutor is willing. Would be at least worth a phone call to try to work something out. It's a little harder to contest this particular charge in court. Winning would probably depend on the officer not showing up.

I had the same issue when I moved back to Ontario from Michigan a few years ago; Michigan doesn't have front licence plates, so no easy place to fix the front licence plate to.

ticketcombat wrote:

The fact that your wife brought it back from the US suggests there may be a few other things not in compliance with Canadian law.

MTO has to see the RIV paperwork before they'll issue the plates for the car, so all of it had to be brought into compliance before he got the plates. (Probably had to get daytime running lights installed - that was the big thing with the car I brought over.)