Two years after the Ford PC’s did away with plate stickers and made renewals free, there are now over a million vehicles on Ontario’s roadways with expired plates, according to data from the Ministry of Transportation, as a result it has led to a misunderstanding by many Ontarians that while the fees and stickers were now gone, they still had to renew their plates.

This has resulted in fines, as high sometimes as $1,000, placed on drivers by police.

However, on Tuesday while announcing legislation to require a referendum should future governments attempt to implement a provincial carbon tax, Premier Doug Ford suddenly announced the process will be automating renewals.

“We did the first step getting rid of the sticker, now we’re getting rid of the re-registration, it will be automatically re-registered so people won’t have to worry about that at all.”

Ford was unable to provide a direct timeline for the plan, only that it would be happening “extremely soon” and would be legislated when MPP’s return to Queen’s Park later this month.