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Enterprise snowbirds take issue with vehicle registration rules Department of Transportation says regulations will be changing over next two years
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 30, 2013
ENTERPRISE
An Enterprise couple, who spends the winter in Mexico, is bewildered by GNWT regulations for registering their vehicle and objecting to the extra cost of dealing with those regulations.
This means the pair might be driving back from Mexico in the spring without valid registration for their truck.
However, according to the Department of Transportation, the three-month registration period will be dissolved over the next 24 months as the process is moved online. But the headaches for the Barletts are still a very real problem as their departure date looms.
Eric and Vi Bartlett leave each October for the Baja Peninsula, and return to the NWT around March. The problem partially revolves around the fact their last name begins with the letter B, meaning their vehicle registration expires at the end of February. If their name began with a letter further down the alphabet, the registration would expire later in the year.
"I could go to court and change my last name, I guess," said Eric. "And that would virtually be the only way to solve the problem that I can see, short of the government doing something sensible."
Vehicle registration cannot be renewed until three months prior to expiration. Since the Barletts leave the NWT about four months before the registration expires, they cannot re-register their vehicle before they leave for Mexico.
They said they have been advised they could fax relevant information, including their credit card number, back to the Department of Transportation to register from Mexico. However, based on past experience, they don't trust the fax and mail system, both in Mexico and with the GNWT, as an efficient and secure means to renew registration.
That leaves the option of paying more before they leave to get a brand-new registration with new plates for a period of 18 months, giving them legal registration for the drive back from Mexico this coming spring.
Eric objects to buying 18 months of registration, and having to buy brand-new registration again 12 months later, arguing that means he is paying extra - he estimates $50-$55 - for six months of registration he will never use.
"That's giving in to somebody scamming you, and it's the government that's scamming me and I don't give in easily to being scammed," he said.
The Bartletts admit they disagree about what they should do this year. Vi is opting to get the vehicle registered for the 18 months, while Eric expects to leave next month with registration.
"I'm going to drive illegally," he said of the drive back up from Mexico in March,
Earl Blacklock, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, said the department is aware of the issue surrounding the three-month time period requirement and is taking steps to address it.
"As we move in the next 24 months to online services, the issue will resolve itself - people will be able to go online from wherever they are to renew their registration," Blacklock said.
Steve Loutitt, the registrar of motor vehicles with the department, confirmed the system has never allowed registration renewals more than three months in advance, but new registrations can be done six months in advance of the expiry of an existing registration.
"We have recently changed the rules around driver's licences and allowed them to be done 12 months in advance, in large part due to snowbirds living south for the winter as it used to be three months," Loutitt stated in an e-mail to News/North."We have not done this (changed the rules) with registrations as we have concentrated our efforts on bringing registration renewals online."
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