Foreigner in My Own Land!

What is up with moving from one Province to another if you are a Canadian?

We recently moved from British Columbia to Alberta. Well, I want to be 'legal' so I went down to the local license plate registry location to get new Alberta license plates for my Infiniti G7xS. This registry place is privately owned and does Government registrations for a fee. So here starts the story….

I walk in prepared. I have my new insurance, my drivers license and the previous registration and insurance. A bit of a line up but not bad. I get to the counter and the gal could not be any more non-excited about her job. Mono tone questions. First thing she says to me is where is my vehicle inspection? I checked with my Infiniti dealer here and was told that any new vehicle with less than 5000 kms on the odometer is exempt from an inspection. "no sir, you need a vehicle inspection" . I am confused as I have no reason to believe the Dealership would give me wron information. After a few minutes of me questioning this response, she checks the computer again and says, no inspection is required but she needs to see the vehicle and check the information. No problem, this gets done and we are on our way…right? WRONG!

She writes out all this information and asks me for the original bill of sale. What do you need that for? "We need to prove you bought this vehicle new" What? You think I bought it used?! Anyway, off I go back home, get the original agreement and head back. Back in the line again and I get a new person. You guessed it, we start the process all over again!! "Where is you vehicle inspection sir? Good Lord girl…do you guys get trained somewhere? All the paperwork is started again, she checks the vehicle again (yes again) and then tells me she needs to send the application to Edmonton to get it 'approved'. Approved? This is a new car and I am Canadian and had valid insurance and registration in BC. What does the Alberta Government need to approve? Am I foreigner who has brought his car in from Europe? Nope. Just a Canadian moving from one Province to another trying to do the right thing.

Well here we are today. I received a message on my cell phone and I was APPROVED! Wow. Now I go intoday for the third time to get the actual plates. I think I will never move again!!

Regards,

Larry J Clark