Didn't get a notice to renew your Quebec driver's licence? You're not alone
CBC
If you rely on an annual reminder from Quebec's automobile insurance board to renew your licence, you may want to check your file.
CBC spoke with multiple drivers who say they didn't receive their payment notice by snail mail this year ahead of their birthday — when a driver's licence expires annually in Quebec.
That left some people cruising around without a valid driver's licence and others scrambling to renew theirs with the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) just days before it expired.
Lisa Levy, 53, says she became suspicious back in September when she still hadn't received her notice. Her birthday is in October.
"I was checking my mailbox every day, looking for it, waiting for it … I was like 'Gee, this is strange, usually they should give you at least 30 days to pay it,'" she said.
Both licence and registration renewal notices tell you how much you owe that year in total fees. The number is subject to change annually.
By mid-October, Levy says she got the "bright idea" to check her SAAQclic online portal — the online platform that launched last year which allows customers to do certain transactions online.
"Sure enough, there was a message in the inbox," she said.
But she didn't know to check there as she never received an email telling her there was activity in her account.
"What I didn't expect was that there wouldn't be an email saying, 'By the way, go and check your message centre,'" she said.
Everyone, regardless of whether they receive a renewal notice in their SAAQclic account, should by default receive a physical one by mail, the SAAQ says.
An exception is a customer who has opted for electronic communication with the SAAQ, in which case a driver would receive notices exclusively through the portal, accompanied by an email alert.
Levy says it's possible she chose to receive notices from the SAAQ electronically when she created her account, but that doesn't explain why she didn't get the email alert. (Yes, she checked her junk folders.)
She says luckily, she was able to renew her licence just days before it expired.
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