Quebec Could Sink Personalized Plates Due To Bureaucratic Ineptitude
When something sounds too good to be true, sometimes it is. After years of dragging its feet, Quebec was poised to implement its first real personalized license plate policy starting in September of 2015. Although it's currently possible to get your ham radio tag on your plate, this seemingly random form of customization is all that is allowed under the existing system.
The original announcement was made January 30, 2014, under the auspices of the Parti Quebecois government. Since that date there's been an election, a sea change in Quebec politics, and apparently a change of heart within the bureaucracy that controls so many aspects of provincial life. LCN is reporting that personalized plates may now be scrapped entirely due to concerns that vulgar English-language expressions could sneak through the plate approval process. The government could be poised to freeze the license plate personalization plan until it can analyze a report put together by legal staff as to how to avoid this eventuality.
There's really no other word than 'ridiculous' to describe this sudden license plate paralysis. The idea that somehow, none of the 50-plus jurisdictions in North America that offer personalized license plates don't have to deal with exactly the same problem is absurd, trumped only by the assertion that Quebec might not be able to handle proofreading license plate submissions before they get made into metal and bolted onto a car. It's as simple as implementing a computer algorithm that scans for certain character combinations and disqualifies them. Instantly. With no extra labour needed. Like every other province and state that does this, and what Quebec had originally planned in order to head off potentially-crass French-language plates from appearing (of course after a 'special committee' had been formed to explore the issue of what might assault our delicate eyes and what might be permissible).
Even the example provided by the report, that words like 'WTF' would be disallowed, qualifies for the collective rolling of eyes. Existing Quebec license plates with 'WTF' on them have been on the streets for years, a product of the 'alpha-alpha-alpha number-number-number' plate assignment system that was the guiding hand provincially since time immemorial.
There is one final assertion made by the report that is a uniquely Quebec problem: that signage laws might not allow English words on plates, period. Again, something that could be solved by a simple algorithm, but sadly an 'issue' that illustrates just how far behind other North American jurisdictions the province has fallen in terms of technology and bureaucratic morass. 10 months after the initial announcement, and we are only hearing about these concerns now? LCN states that almost 40 percent of Quebec drivers were willing to pay $150 for personalized plates - which translates into $11 million in lost revenues for a public apparatus that can't seem to stop tripping over its own feet.
