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British
Columbia Passenger License Plates
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Since
production had been phased out at Oakalla in the early 1970s,
British Columbia had generally contracted firms located out
of province to manufacture their license plates. As evidenced
by the numerous dies, no one source emerged as the preferred
supplier in this time as contracts were awarded that saw B.C.
plates being stamped-out in places such as Nova Scotia, Montreal
and apparently even Edmonton! As part of a campaign to promote
homegrown industry after the 1981-83 recession, the provincial
government made the decision to award a $4.5 million contract
to produce a new base plate to a Surrey firm in March of 1984.
Astrographic Industries Ltd. was charged with creating a new
reflective base that would be more legible for law enforcement
officers and that would showcase the highly stylized provincial
flag logo so favoured by the ruling Social Credit Party. The
total cost to outfit B.C.’s 1.8 million drivers at this
time was estimated at five to six million dollars, a figure
that worked out to roughly $1.42 more per plate, per vehicle
than the old blue base plates coming from Quebec. |
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The
design of the new Flag Graphic was unveiled in early September
of 1984 to much fanfare. The colour scheme stayed true to
form as the colours of the previous base where flipped so
as to have blue lettering on a white, reflective background.
The Beautiful British Columbia slogan was retained, yet again,
now appearing on a line centered at the top of the plate.
The Minister of Transportation, Alex Fraser even commented
that the idea of changing the slogan to Supernatural British
Columbia (another favorite of the Socreds) was toyed with,
but in the end it was decided to stick with tradition. The
decal box was retained in the middle of the plate under the
serial, but was to be now debossed – instead of an embossed,
outline of a square. The most radical change was the positioning
of a tri-coloured provincial flag graphic to separate the
three letter, three digit format that was to be used. The
series itself started at LAA-000 to XKK-999 (the first million
plates), which had been dispensed by the beginning of 1986,
and progressed through LLA-000 to XXK-999 and so on, before
starting again at AAA-000 to KKJ-999. |
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The
decal itself marked only the third time, after the 1958 centennial
license plates, and the 1971 decals marking Confederation
that an event was commemorated on a regular issue passenger
plate (motorists had also been issued special windshield decals
in 1966 on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of
the unification of Vancouver Island with the mainland colony
of B.C.). Unforeseen delays, however, were to ensure that
the new plates would not be ready. The first delay was announced
towards the end of January as Astrographic admitted to paint
problems, especially on the pattern of the flag, which had
resulted in a four to five week delay. Other problems began
to pop-up with the new pressing technique developed by Astrographic
for the Flag Graphic. Synchronicity was a problem as everything
had to be geared to the slowest part of the plate making process;
the 200-ton press. |
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The
month of February would be crucial if there was to be any
hope of having the plates ready to issue to a majority of
motorists in 1985. It had only been five years since B.C.
had adopted the practice of staggered registration, prior
to this every driver in the province had generally been required
to renew between the first day of January and the last day
of February. Consequently, about 580,000 drivers, or about
one-third of every motorist in the province was scheduled
to renew on February 28 of 1985. By February 27th, only 100,000
plates had been manufactured, and at least 700,000 were needed
before a sale to the public could begin. The decision had
already been made in January to issue the new '86 decals to
existing base plates, but the failure to meet the February
rush ensured that many blue-base plates would still be around
well into the new year. A new press was installed in mid-March,
but even by the end of April only 300,000 plates had been
made as applying the new graphic was proving especially tricky
due to the three colour involved. By May the province had
given up trying to forecast when the plates might be ready,
simply stating that it would be some time in the summer. It
would only be on August 1st that the Flag Graphic was ready,
resulting in a situation where it is possible to see a July
1986 validation decal on both the old and the new bases. |
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Over
the years the style of dies used on the Flag Graphic have
varied widely. A very distinctive set can be seen with the
very first plates issued in 1985, with flatter, very crisp,
sharp edges (is it possible these were the product of the
press Astrographic was forced to replace in March of ‘85?).
Other sets, unfortunately not pictured here, have also made
employed – to read a better run down of where in the
run they were used, visit Dan Howlett’s site. The majority
of plates that are pictured on this page have been stamped
with the predominant style of dies found on the Flag Graphic’s;
more rounded and not quite as crisp as earlier styles. The
most distinguishable of all variants appeared in 1998-99 as
the province ordered a set of plates to run in the “KRL"
series (near the end of the ALL-KXX run) to the "ARC"
series (near the start of the ALA-KXK run) from Waldale Limited
in Nova Scotia. The dies that Waldale used have apparently
not been seen on any of the plates they produce for jurisdictions
throughout North America. The style is somewhat wider than
traditional dies, being more defined and square (hopefully
there will be a picture to follow sho |
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Not
much else has changed with BC plates. In 1993 staggered registration
was taken to the next level as daily expiry dates were introduced.
The main impetus behind this move was an election promise
made by the New Democratic Party in the 1991 provincial election
to bring in measures to improve air quality standards in the
Fraser Valley (where over 80% of the province’s population
is located). The results were AirCare
stations that tested older vehicle emissions with the intention
of pulling some of the more chronic polluters off the road.
To ensure compliance, the government made insurance renewal
in the Lower Mainland, conducted through the government run
Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, dependent on passage
of an AirCare test. In the tradition of the year end rushes
to renew during the era of annual, date stamped plates, many
motorists waited till the end of each month to swarm the limited
number of AirCare stations to get the certificate needed for
insurance. To alleviate the pressure, the government was required
to introduce the day stickers that began appearing on plates
in 1993. |
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In
1989, ICBC had established an alternating colour scheme of
green-red-blue-black annual registration decals (although,
1990 was more pinkish then the red of 1994 and 1998). By 1996,
however, the relatively simple colour scheme of the black-on-white
decals was abetting the work of forgers who were producing
enough fakes that ICBC was forced to issue new, pink decals
for November and December of 1996 (hopefully there will be
a picture to follow shortly). |
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| Sources David Nicholson, "British Columbia License Plates 1969 - Present", http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/4412/bc.html (November 5, 2001). Dan Howlett, "Decoding British Columbia License Plates", http://www.kasumirecords.com/bcplates/index.htm (October 28, 2001). Victoria Times-Colonist Newspaper. Vancouver Province Newspaper. Vancouver Sun Newspaper. |
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