Tories to outline auto emissions standards
Updated Tue. Oct. 3 2006 1:35 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Representatives from Canada's big car manufacturers have been summoned to Ottawa for a meeting with Environment Minister Rona Ambrose on Tuesday, where she is expected to lay out plans for auto emissions standards.

The 6 p.m. meeting, which could mark the first time automakers will face regulations, is part of discussions leading to the Conservative government's promised environmental plan that is to be unveiled within weeks.


It's a meeting packed with heavyweights. CTV's David Akin has learned that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier and several other cabinet ministers will attend with Ambrose.


The auto industry has been operating under a voluntary emission reduction plan that will end in 2010.

Ambrose is not expected to spell out specific targets the industry will be forced to meet but she has said that the government will impose new standards that will go further than the voluntary plan.

So far, Canada has either had a written voluntary agreement with the industry to meet emissions goals or an understanding that car manufacturers would follow American standards.

Insiders have told The Canadian Press the ultimate objective is to bring Canada in line with North American-wide standards after 2010.

The new regulations are expected to follow the lead of California, which has introduced tougher clean air laws.

"They don't want Canada to become a dumping ground (for inefficient cars) in North America,'' one Conservative source familiar with the file told CP.

"Canada has to have regulations that are valuable, enforceable and implementable -- to do what they're supposed to do.''

Sources also told the wire agency that the government is also considering a new tax break for consumers who buy hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius. Ontario and British Columbia have a similar program.

In 1981, the Canadian government legislated emissions regulations, but never proclaimed the law.

Politicians did not push the issue when car companies promised they would follow the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards in the U.S.

The Liberal government came close to imposing regulations two years ago, but eventually agreed to a voluntary memorandum of understanding that would see the total industry's emissions reduced by roughly five per cent by 2012.

Ambrose will deliver a formal notice of an intent to regulate the industry, but as one senior government source explained, "This type of thing doesn't happen overnight. It takes a lot of consultation and working on legislation.''

Mark Nantais, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, warned that it was important that North American automakers should have common environmental standards.

"Any adoption of a unique requirement in Canada would cause us consternation because we lose the economies of scale that provide real benefit in terms of cost reductions for consumers," he told CP.

But John Bennett of the Sierra Club of Canada said Canada could actually influence all of North America to follow a stronger emissions standard.

Last week, Ambrose pledged that she would go beyond the previous Liberal government's environmental record by imposing mandatory standards on greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants from industries such as the oil and gas sector.

Oil industry analysts said Monday they are concerned companies working on oil sands projects could be hurt by the uncertainty of the Tory plan but analysts said they don't believe the government will put the plans at risk.

"I think any slowdown in the pace of development will be solely due to economic reasons, and not environmental reasons," Peter Linder, managing director of DeltaOne Capital Partners in Calgary told The Globe and Mail. "A lot of this is noise, more politicking than anything else."

With files from The Canadian Press