Demerit points are what the Ministry assess against you for traffic offences. Here are some popular misconceptions.
You don’t lose points, you accumulate them. Meaning you start with 0. Secondly, they don’t increase your insurance premiums, although that may be a collateral effect. Insurance companies consider convictions. Considering that the conviction will be on your record longer than the demerit points, this is obvious.
Demerit Points will be on your record for 2 years retroactive to the offence date. This means that if a case took longer than 2 years to resolve, those points are recorded retroactively. They will have been on your record even if they are not anymore. If you receive more than 1 ticket in a single stop and a couple have demerit points (example: Stop sign & a Seatbelt offence), you only lose points for the highest carrying ticket. In this example it would be the stop sign. So you would lose 3 points, not 5. When you accumulate enough points, your license gets suspended for 30 (60 days or 6 months for subsequent suspension for NOVICE drivers) days. The time period starts from when you surrender your license. So if you waited 30 days to surrender your license, the suspension is for 60 days total.
If you accumulate enough tickets and have to attend an interview, you can still be suspended, or retested depending on how the interview goes. For novice drivers (G1, G2, M1, M2), it takes 6 points for a possible interview and 9 points for a 60 day (6 month suspension for subsequent suspensions) suspension. For fully licensed drivers (G, M, GM), its 9 points for an interview and 15 for a 30 day suspension. If you are suspended for the 30 days, then your demerit point total is reduced to 7 when you’re reinstated. If you were a novice driver suspended for 60 days, your demerit point total is reduced to 4.