Yukon Government License Plates

Federal Government

Issuing Statistics ????: X1 to X2600 1961: X2601 to X2800 ????: X2801 to X3000 1964: X3001 to X3400 1966: X3401 to X3800

In 1964, the Territory's supply of "X" plates began to dwindle as registrations neared the 3,000 mark, prompting the placement of an order with Oakalla for an additional bloc of 400 plates. Normally, the new bloc of plates would resume where the previous order had ended, which, in this case, would have been from X3001 to X3400. Unfortunately, in this instance, Oakalla erroneously produced the plates starting at X1 to X400.

When the error came to light, Oakalla queried if it mattered that the series restarted at X1, but were informed there were still plates in this range on the roads and that it was "essential to produce X3001 to X3400." The troubles did not end here as the plate shop had misplaced their colour samples, so were forced to rely on the previous year's paint batch when producing the order. Without the paint sample, it was not possible to check the final colour of the plates and as a result the letters and numbers came out turquoise as opposed to their more traditional green. Oakalla attributed this to the previous year's paint batch having settled, thereby affecting the colour. The Territory did not complain further and issued the plates.

As can be seen by the plates shown at left, the colour batch used on plates in the X3001 to X3400 range is markedly different to that which appears on all other "X" plates.

By 1971, the last bloc of 400 hundred plates (numbered X3401 to X3800) which had been ordered in the mid-1960s had nearly all been issued, prompting the Territory to place a new order with Oakalla for a further 250 plates numbered X3801 to X4050. In placing the order the Territory noted that "we understand that the Federal Government has a uniform coloured licence for its vehicles throughout Canada. Should our plate be the wrong colour, please manufacture our plates to the uniform colour."

In response, Oakalla advised that they were "puzzled" as to why these had been requested as British Columbia had discontinued their use several years earlier (i.e. in 1969) and "in lieu of a special plate for both the Dominion Government and the Department of National Defence we are now issuing a standard vehicle plate." Moreover, the Yukon's 'X' plate dies were "in a state of repair that would result in unwarranted expense to manufacture only 250 plates", and that perhaps they would consider abandoning the use of such plates in favour of the approach adopted by British Columbia.

The Territory subsequently advised that "we were unaware these plates are no longer produced as we have not ordered any for several years. However, in future we will use standard license plates to register this type of vehicle. Therefore, kindly cancel our order for 250 Federal Government "X" plates."

Sample Federal Government Licence Plates

With issuance of a new series in 1982, the Federal Government was issued a bloc of plates starting with the letters "FDA" through to "FDZ" (for estimated total of 189 plates).

Territory Government

On July 7, 1965, the Territorial Secretary, H.J. Taylor sent a memo to the Territorial Commissioner advising that he wished to introduce a new plate for Territorial Government Vehicles. It was initially proposed that such a plate would be orange-on-black with either a "Y" or "YT" prefix followed by a number with the word "YUKON" below. The number displayed on the plate would be a "unit number, as used by the Engineering Department and the plate would remain with the vehicle from year to year." It was though that this would eliminate the need to issue Territorial vehicles a pair of plates each year as well as the staff time and manufacturing costs associated with preparing certificates and licences each year.

When, two weeks later (July 20, 1965), Oakalla was informed of the creation of this new plate type for Territorial Government Vehicles, the specifications had been modified so that the colour scheme was now to be an "Omaha red background", black numerals, and "a small letter 'G' prefix slightly smaller than the numbers, [and] similar in size to the letters on [the current] P.S.V. plate."

With issuance of a new series in 1982, Yukon Government vehicles were issued a bloc of plates starting with the letters "GAB" through to "GFZ" (for estimated total of 1,134 plates). Ministers were issued plates starting at "MLA" through to "MLJ" while the RCMP received plates from "MPA" to "MPJ".