Without a safety or insurance you can only change the bike into your name as "UNFIT", but no plates.
With a safety but no insurance you can change the bike into your name as "FIT", but still no plates.
With a safety AND insurance you can change the bike into your name as well as get your plates at the same time.
So the person at the kiosk was either new, or didn't understand what you wanted. If you have a current safety go back ASAP (They are only good for so many days) and get it in your name with FIT status. You can worry about the insurance later and come back then, but take note it will cost you again ($15IIRC for the new ownership, plus your 23 hours waiting in line) doing it this way. If you're planning to get insurance inside the time window before the safety expires, you could just wait and do it all at once saving yourself a second trip to Service Ontario.