Nyman Solutions Professional Corporation

For anyone who needs to renew their Alberta driver’s licence in the foreseeable future, here is a bit of information for you, to the best of my understanding:

You may have heard about the new integration of licenses with Alberta Health Care, and thought “cool, all on one card.” Maybe so, but the rollout has been horrifying, with catastrophic consequences for some people.

Just to renew your licence, you must provide your old licence, your paper Alberta Health Care card (which they will keep) or the health card from the Alberta Wallet, and proof of residency or citizenship (birth certificate, Canadian passport, citizenship or permanent residency papers, etc). The name on each of them has to match. If your birth certificate has a different name, as an example, you also need to provide documentation to show the link between the two names, such as your marriage licence, or your certificate of divorce if your health care has your married name and you’ve reverted to your maiden name. Heaven help you if something was issued with just your initials and not your full name. Also, the documents have to be originals, not photocopies or pictures of them, or digital files.

You might say “I’ve never had to provide all this before.” You are absolutely correct, but you do now, and there is no way for the people who work at the registry offices to bypass this or make exceptions. You might say “but the government has all this information already.” Somewhere in their system, they do, but government departments aren’t all connected. Immigration isn’t totally integrated with CRA, which isn’t integrated with provincial health care, etc.

If you go ahead with renewing without all the documentation, the registry can issue a temporary licence. You then have 60 days to get the missing documents and return to the registry to complete your renewal. If you don’t, on day 61 your license is cancelled AND your Alberta Health Care is cancelled. You lose access to your doctor and health services. This can result in increased insurance costs because now you have a cancelled licence on your record, and massive headaches to get everything reinstated. Also, the 60 day grace period is a one-time courtesy. Next time you renew, if you don’t have your paperwork you won’t get another extension.

Please, please ensure that you have this documentation together. If you lose your wallet or it’s stolen, if you are taking your child in for their licence, the process can be even more difficult. You can replace your Alberta Health Care card relatively easily by phoning AHC, but to replace residency or citizenship documents takes AT LEAST 17 months right now. Imagine having no health care or licence for a full year and a half because you don’t have the one piece of ID that you need now.

I’m hearing stories of people being so angry at the registry employees that there have been death threats, threats of violence, verbal abuse, and just unpleasantness overall. Trust me, these employees are every bit as unhappy as you are, and the registry owners are doing everything they can to appeal to the government to recognize the problems and change the process. It is not their fault. It’s the fault of a government pushing changes through without listening to the front-line people and integrating their input in how best to roll out those changes. I understand being frustrated, but please don’t take it out on people who have been thrust into this situation by a government that just didn’t want to listen to them.