ICBC making life troublesome for people with hyphenated names

The process for putting a marriage-altered hyphenated name on a British Columbia driver's license has gotten pretty cumbersome. Several B.C. residents, including Rossland's Christine Therriault-Finke, have found that out the hard way.

Upon going in to renew her driver's license, she was told that an April 2016 rule change by the Insurance Corporation of B.C. (ICBC) would not allow her to do so unless she made a series of expensive changes with other pieces of identification as well. This happened, despite the fact that she has been using it freely that way for nearly two decades. Suddenly, she was faced with three unappealing alternatives.

"I could go back to my maiden name. I could take my husband's name or I could go through the process of getting a legal name change," said Therriault-Finke.

Recent changes have made it so that the name on an existing driver's license card must match with all other identification that fall under the umbrella of the all-in-one card the province began issuing in 2013. For someone like Therriault-Finke, getting to the point where she was compliant with those demands would take quite a bit of manouvering on her part.

"It includes changing my birth certificate, having finger-printing done, a criminal reference check, a whole bunch of things to become my hyphenated name which I have been using for 19 years," she said.

This B.C.-specific process can be especially frustrating for relocated residents from other provinces, who are used to a much simpler way of doing things.

"In Saskatchewan, you just had to bring your marriage certificate and then all of your documents were changed," said Cher King-Scobie, a Chilliwack resident who was married 15 years ago in Saskatchewan.