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Clean Air Act Will Bring Decades-Old Car Emissions Legislation into Force

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 October 2006, 18:00 CDT

By DENNIS BUECKERT AND JENNIFER DITCHBURN

OTTAWA (CP) - The Conservative government plans to breathe life into 25-year-old automobile fuel-efficiency legislation that has languished unused in the lawbooks, a key component of their Clean Air Act to be introduced Thursday.

A senior Conservative insider said the 1981 Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act, along with myriad other existing pieces of environmental legislation including the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, will be combined with new laws as part of the Tories' green plan.

"It creates new powers and it also punches up the powers we presently have, so it'll be a multi-pronged approach in what is a very heavy regulatory agenda," the source told The Canadian Press.

Consumers waiting for news on what kinds of tax breaks and incentives might be in the green plan will have to wait. They will not be included in Thursday's announcement.

Environmentalists have been clamouring for years for Ottawa to impose mandatory standards on the car industry by using the existing Act, tabled by Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government in the aftermath of the energy crisis.

But manufacturers persuaded government after government that they would simply abide by U.S. standards voluntarily, avoiding a potentially costly system of regulations. Two weeks ago, Environment Minister Rona Ambrose and cabinet colleagues put the industry on notice that the government intends to end the current voluntary agreement by 2010.

The Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act contains a number of enforcement measures, such as fines up to $1 million for companies that contravene fuel consumption standards, and a system of inspectors to make independent checks of the industry - something Canada's environment commissioner recently complained was sorely lacking.

But the legislation is only a framework, and will require the government to develop its own efficiency standards, which is sure to involve competing pressures from industry and environmentalists.

Will Canadian standards be in line with U.S. regulations that have stayed virtually neutral for the past decade, or closer to the pioneering California levels that are the new high bar for fuel efficiency?

Mark Nantais, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association, said it's important to stick with the baseline U.S. standards. Canada-specific levels would pose major problems for industry given the integrated North American market, he says.

Environmentalists think otherwise.

"The only thing that's meaningful is to adopt the California standard. Otherwise we can only assume it's just smoke and mirrors," said Louise Comeau of the think-tank Sage Climate Project.

Environmental groups say they're also wary of the entire Clean Air Act, pointing to a draft of the legislation leaked last week that they say would weaken Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

Opposition MPs, meanwhile, are gearing up for battle over the green plan using their majority on the Commons environment committee.

Politicians from all three opposition parties voted Tuesday to fast-track a Liberal bill that blatantly conflicts with the Tory agenda.

The committee voted to suspend its current business, a review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, to focus on a private member's bill that would require Canada to respect its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the Kyoto targets are unachievable, but the Liberal bill would require the government to make its best effort to achieve them, through international emissions-trading if necessary.

Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez, author of the pro-Kyoto bill, said he believes it can pass both the Commons and the Senate in short order, since the opposition parties are united.

"It's a very important moment in Canadian political history," he said in an interview after the vote.

Conservative Mark Warawa, parliamentary secretary to Ambrose, was furious.

"It's disgusting," he said. "They passed a motion to hijack the committee."

Private member's bills rarely become law, but Rodriguez says the three opposition parties are united in their backing of the Kyoto treaty, and he expects the bill to be passed.

Even if it were passed, the government could choose to ignore it just as it has effectively ignored Parliament's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol under the previous government.

But the bill would have symbolic significance, particularly if it breezes through third reading while the Clean Air Act remained bogged down at a hostile committee.

Source: Canadian Press

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