SAAQ Gives Green Light to Personalized Plates

The Quebec Transport Ministry announced today that it will allow the SAAQ to begin issuing personalized license plates in the province of Quebec within the next year and a half or so.

The government will be choosing a private firm to create and issue the plates according to SAAQ standards. There is no word yet on the cost but in other parts of the country it costs about $150-$200 for the service.

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Vehicle owners will be able to choose a custom set of up to seven characters, albeit with certain restrictions such as foul language. Even the current standard of three letters and three numbers (ABC 123 or 123 ABC) has restrictions such as FLQ, RAT and SEX among many others. The letters O, I and U are also restricted because they look like 0, 1 and V and it could confuse police officers. The fact that there is only a finite amount of combinations to the current system may also have played a part in the decision.

The provincial government has been studying the change since the beginning of 2013.