Vehicle Registration Questions: Out of Province Safety Inspection for BC Car in Ontario

I believe since April 1st 2017, you no longer need emission test on new registrations but you will need a safety certificate for any used car (i.e. if it was ever registered in BC (even if it's a new vehicle), I believe you need an Ontario Safety).

As far as getting a temporary permit, it depends on the previous registration - if it was previously plated and that's written on the BC registration, I believe you'll be able to get a temp permit (you can get that with Ontario registrations) but if it doesn't say "previously plated", you might not be able to (I believe if you buy an Ontario vehicle and the current registration says 'unplated', you cannot get a temporary permit without the inspection first).

In your place, I would go to your local Service Ontario and ask because, from my experience, most Service Ontario are actually independent contractors and they choose to implement the rules their own way (not right but they'll simply tell you that if you want plates, you have to do what they tell you otherwise you can't get the plates ...). Get the seller to fax / email the current registration over, bring that to Service Ontario and ask them if you'll be able to get a temp permit ...