Canadian police agree to let Chinese drivers use mainland licences

Canadian police have agreed to let Chinese drivers temporarily use their mainland licences in British Columbia without being fined, ending a row with the province's car insurance authority.

This week's deal between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) was struck after it emerged that the police considered thousands of Chinese were driving illegally in the city of Richmond. The Vancouver satellite is the most Chinese city outside Asia, with almost 50 per cent of the 190,000 population ethnic Chinese.

The RCMP has long fined drivers caught using a Chinese licence, and towed their vehicles. Yet the ICBC - which is in charge of vehicle registration, licences and insurance - had been allowing Chinese visitors and new immigrants onto the roads, telling them their mainland licences were valid in BC for up to six months and 90 days respectively.

Police had said they could not trust the veracity of mainland documents because there was no licence data-sharing agreement.

Despite numerous challenges to the RCMP's policy by aggrieved drivers, BC's courts had always sided with the police.

Now, the issue had been resolved in the ICBC's favour, the insurer said.

It said the RCMP had agreed to no longer fine drivers using mainland licences but they would have to get a valid BC licence within 90 days of becoming a BC resident. Visitors would be allowed to drive on their Chinese licences for six months.