Supporting The Troops? Or The McGuinty Government?

Ontario’s new vanity government-issued licence plates that are designed with the yellow ribbon signifying support for our military, does not actually do a whole lot of supporting. Progressive Conservative MPP Bob Runciman is critical of the new plates because a very small portion of sales go to the Canadian Forces Personnel Assistance Fund. The plates, which were unveiled yesterday on Remembrance Day, will be issued in February. But while each plate will cost $77.25 to purchase, only $2.25 will go to the Assistance Fund, or just under 3% of the proceeds:

A set of personalized plates with the yellow ribbon will cost $314, with $4.50 going toward the fund.

Runciman said it is “misleading” for the government to pass this initiative off as a “significant” way for the public to raise funds for the Canadian Forces.

“The cost to produce the plates are pretty modest,” he said. “This could’ve been a potentially significant way to raise money for the military and their families.”

But Government Services Minister Harinder Takhar said the plates were never meant to be a fundraising method for military families.

“The purpose is not about fundraising. It’s meant to create awareness about our defence forces and the kind of job our defence forces do,” he said.

I beg to differ. I think a great number of people would assume that the plates would go toward supporting our military in more than just “awareness”. Indeed, this sounds more like a mere copyright licencing opportunity for the province of Ontario, paying into the military fund for the right to use the logo in the same way they would pay the Toronto Maple Leafs for the rights to theirs.

The matching plates are discounted even more, with just 1.4% of sales proceeds going into the Canadian Forces Personnel Assistance Fund. It’s one thing to say you’re creating licence plates with the yellow ribbon on it in order to create awareness about our military, but without explicitly explaining that the plates only donate certain portions of the proceeds to the military, it is misleading.

In fairness to the government of Ontario, the “vanity plates” are the same cost as other “Personalized, Graphic and

Sample Plates” on their website. A regular 2 to 6 character plates with a graphic [like the yellow ribbon or some other logo] will run you $314. Without knowing exactly how much the government pays in licencing to other registered trademarks and logos, it’s difficult to know whether they’re being generous or cheap.

“There’s a lot of costs involved in these plates, designing the plates, IT costs, distribution costs . . . we have to take all those costs into account. We’d like to give them as much as we can, but our intention is to create awareness and support,” said Mr. Takhar.

Knowing what all those costs are, broken down into the cost effectiveness of the service, would go a long way to helping Mr.Takhar’s statement. But given that the announcement was made on Remembrance Day, one is left with the sense that this is a mere marketing ploy that has really very little to do with honouring our veterans, and our soldiers.