A new licence plate could be available by the summer of 2017 to raise money for the families of Indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing, according to Manitoba’s Minister of Justice Kelvin Goertzen.
A private member’s bill to establish a specialty licence plate, similar to those that already exist for organisations like the Humane Society or causes like cancer research, was recently introduced by the opposition New Democrats.
Crown-owned Manitoba Public Insurance gives $30 from each specialty plate to a registered group.
Goertzen asserts that no bill is required to produce the plate even though the legislature is expected to reconvene later this week and the measure has not yet been passed.
Goertzen claims he has requested that the company have the licence plate available for purchase by the summer in a conversation with Manitoba Public Insurance.
He says there are some details to work out, though, including designating a group that will be responsible for the money raised.
Goertzen stated on Monday that “clearly there will be some consultations, probably, about the design of the plate.”
In terms of determining who actually receives funding from the plate, more work needs to be done.
New Democrat legislature member Bernadette Smith has said the money raised by the plates would ease the financial challenges facing relatives of the missing and murdered.
Claudette Osborne, Smith’s sister, vanished in 2008.
Manitoba’s missing and murdered Indigenous women’s licence plate is being investigated
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