Not totally free, just that there will no longer be date stickers on the plates. Renewals will still be done to confirm insurance information, but there will not be a renewal fee for light truck/passenger vehicles. You still have to purchase the initial licence plate from MTO. I assume the fee to transfer the plate to a different vehicle, or to replace a plate, will still involve a fee, as it does now. Plus, there is still a fee every five years to renew your driver's licence.

Anyone who has already paid to renew their sticker (for either one or two years) since March 2020 will receive a refund cheque.

The province is investing in Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology to instantly read licence plates. Many police services already use this. Ontario now joins four other provinces and one territory in eliminating plate renewal stickers. Maybe Sint Maarten should be looking at this technology. Whether this or renewal stickers (QR code or regular), it should still be cheaper than constantly issuing new licence plates.