As golf courses prepare for the influx of summer golfers, they will have at least one less thing to worry about. Golf course owners will no longer be required to register, license or insure their golf carts and utility vehicles through ICBC to operate in parking lots or cross public roads.

Merely driving a cart across a road from one side of the golf course to the other required insurance and a licence plate. An amendment to the Motor Vehicle Act means that golf carts owned by golf courses will be exempt from those requirements for use in golf course parking lots, driveways and crossing roads.

Exemptions will also be made to a range of industrial utility vehicles for use in parking lots and driveways, and for certain incidental highway use. Scissor lifts and powered wheel barrows will be defined as "mobile equipment" and will also be exempted from those requirements. In place of ICBC insurance, business owners will be able to cover these vehicles through their commercial general liability insurance.

The change is one of many introduced today as part of Bill 13, the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act No 2.

Quick Facts:

• There are 1,400 golf carts owned by golf courses in B.C.
• The annual licence fee for golf carts is $23.
• In B.C., 30 per cent of golf courses straddle a highway.
• There are 14,000 utility vehicles registered, licensed and insured through ICBC.

Learn More:

For more information about driver licences and insurance: www.ICBC.com

Contact:

Media Relations
Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General
250 356-6961