A day after insisting there’s nothing wrong with Ontario’s new double-blue licence plates, Premier Doug Ford’s embattled administration is shifting blame to the manufacturer amid a chorus of complaints the plates are hard to read in the dark.

“Public safety is the top priority of our government. Premier Ford has personally spoken to the president of 3M Canada on two separate occasions seeking an immediate solution (to) the issue identified with their product,” his office said late Wednesday afternoon.

“The government of Ontario expects 3M to stand by their product. We are working with them on a path forward and will have more to say shortly.”

The statement from Ford’s office came hours after Government and Consumer Services Minister Lisa Thompson faced more tough questions in the legislature and revealed the plates were “designed in partnership” with 3M, the vendor of record on the contract.

“They’re responsible for quality control and manufacturing the plates,” she told MPPs.

“We’ve been made aware of the concerns, we are listening,” added Thompson, who evaded questions from reporters by taking a back way through a series of offices to get from the legislative chamber to a cabinet meeting.

3M Canada acknowledged it is working with the province as part of a commitment that begins in the design phase of a product and continues through the deployment.

“We stand behind our products and are actively providing solutions to the Ontario government to address the readability issue as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement that did not detail where the problem lies or how it will be fixed.

3M’s website boasts of technology that uses “high definition” licence plate sheeting designed to provide “instant clarity and visibility…day or night, rain or shine.”

This is the second printing-related embarrassment for Ford, who for years ran the family printing company Deco Labels and last fall faced criticism over gas pump stickers from another company that did not adhere well and peeled off in some instances. The stickers attacked the federal carbon tax.

The Ford government’s abrupt change in tone in less than 24 hours contrasted with statements from Thompson on Tuesday that the plates had undergone “exhaustive” testing and that the government “stands by” them.

“She maintains there’s nothing to see here, folks. Well, she’s partially right…at night, there isn’t anything to see,” said New Democrat MPP Jennifer French (Oshawa), zeroing in on the minister for a second day.

“It would seem these licence plates were rolled out before they had been road-tested.”

Concerns about the plates announced with fanfare by Ford’s government in last spring’s budget and put into circulation earlier this month were first raised by an off-duty police officer in Kingston, who tweeted over the weekend that the plates give off a glare when hit by light in some circumstances, making them impossible to read at night.

Earlier Wednesday, the City of Toronto reported that the new photo radar cameras are having trouble reading the plates, which opposition parties at Queen’s Park have branded “propaganda” because they are in Conservative blue.

“This government has put us in a pickle with these plates and for what? So that Ford could get his vanity plates out onto the roads and feel better about himself?” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“It certainly went terribly, terribly wrong.”

Toronto city staff confirmed the new plates are also causing problems for red-light cameras that issue tickets, potentially costing the city revenue and jeopardizing safety gains if drivers realize they might escape punishment.

“For red light cameras, while with a very small sample set, some of the new licence plates could not be identified either in part or entirely,” said City of Toronto transportation spokesperson Hakeem Muhammad on Wednesday. He could not immediately say how much revenue was lost.

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Last year, according to city figures, Toronto earned $43.6 million from red light cameras, short of a $51-million target.

The city hopes to double the number of red-light cameras this year as part of Vision Zero.

“An officer must be able to identify a vehicle’s rear licence plate, including the name of jurisdiction, to lay a charge. This is a requirement to be able to prosecute under the law,” Muhammad said.

“The city will be exploring possible solutions with the (photo radar) device vendor if the readability of the new licence plates is confirmed to be an issue.”

But there are no difficulties reading the plates along toll Highway 407, said spokesperson Kevin Sack.

“We’re able to take a photograph of the plate without issue, daytime and nighttime,” he said. “Our technology is such that we make adjustments all the time in how we read plates.”

Sack added the toll highway has been “working with the province of Ontario in making those adjustments,” and were consulted about the development of the new plates.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada is also raising concerns about the nighttime visibility trouble with the plates, calling it “very serious.”

“The ability to clearly see the licence plates is obviously crucial if people need to call police to report suspected impaired drivers, or other dangerous drivers,” the group said in a statement. “MADD Canada joins those asking the Government of Ontario to review the visibility of these new plates at night.”

The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and the Ontario Safety League have raised the same issue, citing risks to public safety if police or citizens cannot read plate numbers at night to report potentially impaired drivers, for example.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said the government should not be issuing any of the new plates until visibility problems are solved, although there are reportedly no more old white plates with raised blue lettering available because they were scrapped in the changeover.

“That’s something the minister’s going to have to figure out. This is a problem this government created.”

The Ford administration made the problem worse by initially denying it on Tuesday, said interim Liberal leader John Fraser.

“What they should have said yesterday is, ‘they don’t work and we’re going to fix it.’ Simple.”

With files from David Rider and May Warren