The Canadian province of British Columbia first required its residents to register their motor vehicles and display licence plates in 1904. Since then, plates have changed from being yearly renewals with date stamps, to decals as is the current method.
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Passenger plates 1904 to present
In 1956, the U.S. states and Canadian provinces came to an agreement with the Automobile Manufacturers Association that fixed the size for licence plates for vehicles, except those for motorcycles, at six inches in height by twelve inches in width, with standardized mounting holes. The 1955 (dated 1956) issue was the province's first licence plate that complied with these standards.
Licence plate serials for passenger vehicles omit the following letters: I, O, Q, U, Y, and Z. From the introduction of yearly registration stickers with the ABC-123 series in 1970 until the end of the 123-ABC series in 2014, the set of 20 available letters was divided into two 10-letter blocks: A-K and L-X. When a serial reached the end of a block, the next issue would roll over to the start of the same block, so that AAK was followed by ABA, rather than AAL. Likewise, AAX was followed by ALA, rather than ABA. The serials were issued in two sets of 8 blocks each (letters first 1970-2001, then numbers first 2001-2014): AAA-KKJ, AAL-KKX, ALA-KXK, LAA-XKK, ALL-KXX, LLA-XXK, LAL-XKX, and LLL-XXW. As of the AB1-23C series introduced in 2014, the serials are being issued in a single 20-letter block, in alphabetical order (i.e. AA0-00A to AX9-99X, then BA0-00A, etc.).
Note that the letter Y appears on certain commercial vehicle plates.
BC Parks plates 2017 to present
On November 28, 2016 BC announced its new BC Parks Future Strategy. In this, was the mention of using a special ICBC issued license plate that would have the proceeds go to preserving BC Parks. On January 18, 2017 ICBC unveiled the new plates. There are 3 different designs and they went on sale January 29, 2017, through the Autoplan broker network. They are $50 for the initial purchase with $33 going to fund BC Parks. After that, there is an annual renewal fee of $40, 100% of which goes to funding the parks system. In just under 8 weeks since becoming available, it was reported that 10,000 BC Parks plates have been sold; this includes all 3 deisgns.
Licence plate decals
Since 1970, it has been necessary in British Columbia to place a decal on the rear licence plate as proof of current insurance in order to be permitted to drive the vehicle. Decals have been used since 1970, but they all expired on February 28 of the following year until March 1980. Then they expired at the end of the month on the decal, until 1994. Then an additional decal, with a number on it for the day it expired, was introduced.
The decals are currently issued by the provincial motor vehicle insurer, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. The following are the colour patterns used in years from 1980 onward: