When he had to renew the licence plate sticker on his car, Government Services Minister John Milloy went to the nearest Service Ontario office and waited his turn.

He didn’t need to stand in line — the service is one of 27 available online — but Milloy is not alone.

Statistics obtained by the Star show just 9.3 per cent of sticker renewals are done on the Internet, and are among the least-used online options at Service Ontario, along with getting information packages to sell used cars, renewing drivers’ licences and changing addresses for them.

“I shouldn’t admit it but I didn’t know I could do it. You print off a renewal certificate and then you get your stickers in the mail,” acknowledged Milloy, whose ministry is responsible for Service Ontario.

Even if your sticker isn’t up to date on the licence plate, police pulling motorists over can check the computers in their cruisers and see if the renewal has been done.

While some Service Ontario offerings have a high online usage rate, such as birth certificates at 89 per cent, others are low, such as getting the papers needed for privately selling a used vehicle at 1.8 per cent.

Other online rates vary widely for similar services. While just 10 per cent of driver’s licence change of address notifications are done by computer, the rate is 15.6 per cent for health cards and a whopping 96.6 per cent for Outdoors Cards, suggesting that hunting and fishing enthusiasts are more web savvy.

Despite the convenience of it, the government expects just 5 per cent of motorists to take advantage of online drivers’ licence renewals recently offered — a precursor to health card renewals on the Internet, which the ministry is working on.

“We want everyone to be aware,” Milloy said of the online suite of offerings, lamenting “there’s a long way to go.”

In an era where people think nothing of buying books, clothes or flights and vacations online, old habits may be the biggest barrier to Ontarians taking care of their business with the government via computer.

“Part of it is changing the culture,” said Milloy, who admitted many people may not expect the government to be user-friendly.

That’s because of a reputation of long lines at some Service Ontario centres and black eyes from previous snafus, such as computer crashes and the old kiosk machines that the government had to eliminate last year over security concerns, said Progressive Conservative government services and accountability critic Doug Holyday.

“The public wants to know you have a system they can trust,” said Holyday (Etobicoke—Lakeshore), questioning why the government couldn’t guarantee security at its machines given that banks manage it with their huge stables of ATMs.

“People don’t want their personal information to be at risk.”

After leaving customers in limbo for five months, former government services minister Harinder Takhar decided to pull the plug on the kiosks last November, saying he couldn’t guarantee “foolproof” protection from fraudsters targeting the 72 machines purchased for $4 million in 1996.

Ministry officials said last year that closing the kiosks drove more business to Service Ontario’s online offerings.

Holyday called on the government to advertise the online services more, arguing the savings in staff levels and other costs at Service Ontario offices would pay for themselves.

“That’s the way the banks work. A lot of people don’t even see a teller anymore. I don’t.”

Milloy said he would like to drive more Service Ontario business online so the savings can be used to improve service levels, and the government is trying to do so inexpensively through social media such as Twitter.

“It’s word of mouth,” Milloy told the Star. “Hopefully over time . . . .”

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He encouraged anyone needing to do something at Service Ontario check the website on their computer first.

“Just go online. It could save you a trip.”

Online usage rates at Service Ontario

1.8 per cent for used vehicle information package

10 per cent for driver’s license address changes

15.6 per cent for health card address changes

96.6 per cent for Outdoors Card address changes

35 per cent for personalized licence plates

68.6 per cent for organ donor registration

88.8 per cent for birth certificates

61.7 per cent for death certificates

99.7 per cent for integrated birth registration notices