The Government - Here to Make Life Difficult!

The morning I went to register the van was a beautiful one. I was feeling good as I made my way to the City of Ottawa Ontario Drivers Kiosk on Laurier Ave. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and people seemed friendlier than usual as I passed them on the streets. It was the perfect day to get Cloud 9 her first set of Ontario plates (she originated from BC).

The Service Desk at the City of Ottawa, however, was operating under a dark cloud. First, I waited in line for over an hour. When I got up to the counter, I swear I had the grumpiest person in the whole place serving me. I gave her all the paperwork. She grunted, “Do you have insurance? Do you have your safety papers?” I explained that on the Ontario Drivers website I read that I could register the van without having insurance and that I read I would have a certain number of days after registering the vehicle during which I would safety the vehicle. She grumpily stated that this was indeed the case, if I was willing to have the vehicle towed everywhere. “If you want to be able to drive the vehicle anywhere you have to have insurance before you register it. Otherwise you will not legally be able to drive it until after the vehicle has been safetied and has adequate insurance. Oh and you have a week within which you must register the vehicle and pay all fees.”

What a wake-up call! I had to get insurance, a safety, and register the vehicle, all within a week—and not just any week either. This was the week before reading week when I would be taking a trip to Paris! I panicked a little, I must admit. I went home and started researching insurance companies right away. But soon it became clear that getting insurance with no previous history with any Ottawa companies was going to be virtually impossible. Company after company, as soon as I mentioned the year, make and model of my vehicle, they would immediately chime: “Sorry, we don’t insure cars that are more than 20 years old.”

I called Doug near to tears, panicking about what I was going to do with my vehicle. I was terrified about having to call my parents and explain to them that I’d bought a vehicle that wasn’t safetied, for which I couldn’t get insurance, and that I had no place to store. It wasn’t a week earlier that my father had gently lectured me on not buying a vehicle “as is”, and making sure that I researched insurance on it first. I had gone against both those things, and I was in a bind. I cried over the phone to Doug, stressed to the nines wondering how I would deal with the van while also having to worry about exams and my trip to Paris all at the same time. When I was cried out, we decided that he would try to get himself insured on the vehicle.

The day of my flight to Paris, Doug, Julie and I went to the MTO in Vanier (recommended by Brian Johnson as the place with the nicest employees…and he was right!). In a matter of minutes, the vehicle was registered and paid-for. I had plates to put on, and a sticker that told the world those plates were valid. Thanks to Doug’s amazing mechanic, the vehicle was safetied, and officially ready to be driven legally. Finally, Cloud 9 was mine—my first vehicle ever.

-Nicole