SAAQ To Reduce Licensing And Registration Fees For Quebec Drivers
CTV is reporting that Quebec residents could be looking at some relief from the onerous costs of registering an automobile - and paying for a driver's license - in the near future. For those of you who remember the good old days, it used to cost under $50 for the privilege of renewing your license on a yearly basis. But that was back in 2006. Since then, and with no government oversight, given the fact that the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) was granted the liberty to raise registration and license costs without having to go to the provincial legislature, costs have risen considerably across the board for Quebec drivers.
Although nothing has been set in stone, the SAAQ has floated the idea that in 2016, driver's license fees could be dropped to $55 a year for passenger cars (with a token $2 drop to $62 a year for motorcycles). More dramatic is the plan to slice car and truck registration from $120 to $63 a year in the same time frame.
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Why are costs going down? It's the intersection of insurance costs and SAAQ financing. Back when Quebecois and Quebecoise were first hit with these seemingly endless increases in license and registration fees the province was forced to pay out a substantial number of compensation claims via the no-fault insurance system that it operates, which hit an 'under-funded' SAAQ hard. Now, in a move that almost no government bureaucracy ever makes, the Société is willing to reduce fees in conjunction with the lower accident rate that has become the norm in recent years. If the SAAQ doesn't have to write as many cheques as it once did, then its management has elected to pass those savings on to the drivers that fund it.
There is one exception: if you own a motorcycle, you can expect to continue to be bled dry by registration costs. Although 400cc-and-above touring bikes will benefit from a modest $4 drop in reg fees by 2016 should the plan go through, anyone who owns a sub-400cc motorcycle will be in for a shock: fees are going to skyrocket from $43 to $335 per year by 2017. Even worse: sport bike owners will be facing $1154 in registration costs on a yearly basis, which is almost eight times what they currently pay.
These numbers don't take into account additional costs such as Montreal's public transportation contribution, fees for engines above 4.0-litres in size, and of course commercial vehicle registration prices.