Peel ... in this place: Why thousands of licence plates are being recalled

Licence plates across New Brunswick are peeling and the province is urging driverswith the problem to get their plates replaced.

RebeccaMatchettis one of them.

The local driver noticed her platesstarted peeling when sheput new registration stickers on in March.

"Annoying, maybe a little concerning," she said."I wouldn't want to get pulled over because my plate wasn'tvisible or up to the standard."

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• Service Nova Scotia warns drivers to replace unreadable licence plates

The peeling is amanufacturing issue, which means Service New Brunswickwill replace the peeled plates from 2009onward for free.

Robert Duguay, director of communications for the Department of Justice and Public Safety, said theprovince has known about the problem since 2009.

The plates are made by Waldale Manufacturing Ltd., which hasn't been able to solve the peeling problem.

"It only affects a portion of the plates every year," said Duguay.

Since 2009,Duguay saidabout 7,000 plates have been brought back for replacement. But the total number of defective plates is still unknown.

The problem plates are seemingly random, and even new plates could peel, he said.

"If they [drivers] don't have an appropriate plate on their car, of course they'll be in violation of the Motor Vehicle Act and the police could remind them about it at some point," he said.

Duguaydoesn't know how much it costs to replace the plates, as Waldale Manufacturing Ltd.,pays for the replacements.

Plates peel elsewhere

But New Brunswick isn't the only province dealing with plate peeling.

In 2015, Newfoundland and Labradorhad 4,335 defective plates returned and replaced, and another 5,109 in 2016.

In Nova Scotia, 1,500 plates havehad to be replaced since 2008.

Both Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia also use WaldaleManufacturing Ltd.,as their licence plate provider.

Duguay said switching manufacturers is not an option, andhopes the company can figure out what's going wrong.

If people have plates that are illegiblebecause of peeling, Duguay recommendsthey get them replaced right away.

"Take it very seriously," he said.