Proposed Changes to Ontario's Drive Clean Program

[dguy]

I turfed my membership in the SVAO a while back for personal reasons, but apparently they still see fit to send me bits of mail.  I received the following a couple of days ago, and thought I'd pass it on as it may be of concern to some of us.  Spelling mistakes are the fault of whomever drafted the document which was sent to me; typos are all mine, and I hoard them voraciously.


SVAO Issues Ontario Emissions Alert

Proposed changes to The Drive Clean Emissions program by the Ontario government through the Ministry of the Environment will do nothing to help the old car hobby and its many related business and their employees.  While the Specialty Vehicle Association was allowed input on the review of the current Drive Clean program, the SVAO does not agree with a number of the consultant generated proposals and will be vigorously working to see appropriate changes take place.  We agree with the exemption for Historic and Year of Manufacture (YOM) plated vehicles as well as the grandfathering of pre-1988 vehicles (read: no changes for 1987 & earlier vehicles) but see no need for the elimination of the current rolling 20 year exemption.  The SVAO needs your help on this issue!

Key changes

• Elimination of the rolling 20 year exemption
• Annual testing for vehicles 12 year old and older
• Increasing the repair cost limit from $450 to $600

The ramifications of these three changes are extensive.  Yes it's great that most of our existing collector vehicles got an exemption as the rolling 20 year exemption will not disappear until after the 1987 models have gotten the pass.  But that means 1988 and newer models as they reach the age of 12 years will be tested annually forever unless they are Historic or YOM plated when they reach 30 years of age in non-modified form.  There is no specific mention of what will happen to any new modified vehicles.  Think about what that means for the next generation of our hobby! (and owners of 1988 Fieros!)

During the period when an Ontario Emissions Program was first being set up in the mid-90s, the SVAO often found itself unofficially representing seniors, working folks and others who don't own newer cars as well as our constituents of old vehicle hobbyists.  At that time we argued that an emissions program can become an onerous tax on many working citizens and seniors who can least afford it.  Under these proposals all vehicles over 11 years of age will have to be tested annually while those people who can afford to purchase or lease a new vehicle will be exempt for 5 years.  The same vehicles from 5 to 11 years in age will continue to be tested every second year as is now the case.

Something doesn't seem right as we in Ontario have the great equalizer - salt.  Where are the numbers to show that Ontario's roads are suddenly being over populated with 20 year old vehicles?  If there really are that many 20 year old vehicles, let's look at a rolling 25 year exemption.  Ask to see the numbers when questioning this proposal.  In the mid-90s only 2.8% of the licensed light vehicles were 20 year old or over.  By the time you take away the collector vehicles, you have to wonder why the Drive Clean Review consultants decided to take a run at older vehicles.  The consultants make reference to bringing Ontario into line with California and Arizona, two non-rust areas.  This makes as much sense as getting in line with any of a great number of jurisdictions that don't have Drive Clean programs.

The SVAO is in favour of clean air and protecting our enviornment but in a reasonable and sustainable manner for our province and for our hobby and businesses.  These proposed changes need to be sent back to the table for more consideration.

What should I do?

Get Involved! - Write a letter (petitions don't carry the same weight) outlining your disagreement with these changes and send it to your MPP.  Send a copy fo the office of our Premier Dalton McGuinty as well as the ofice of the Minister of the Environment Laurel Broten.  Be sure to outline all of the pluses that our collector vehicles, clubs and businesses give to our communities.  Ask them to work on your behalf to fix these problems.  You have less than 60 days to get your feelings known!

IMPORTANT!!!  Send a copy of your concerns by January 17, 2006 to:

Christopher Paulin, Senior Program Advisor
Drive Clean
40 St. Clair Ave W.
Toronto, ON   M4V1M2
Tel: 416-314-0375   Fax: 416-314-4160

Contact Information

Dalton McGuinty, Premier
Queen's Park
Rm. 281, Main Legislative Bldg.
Toronto, ON   M7A 1A4
Tel: 416-325-1941   Fax: 416-325-7578
e-mail: dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Laurel Broten, Minister of the Environment
MOE
135 St. Clair W.
12^th floor
Toronto, ON   M4V 1P5
Tel: 416-314-6790   Fax: 416-314-6748
e-mail: lbroten.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

^*Don's note: if using e-mail, based on past experience you must include your full name, mailing address and telephone number in the body of the message if you wish to receive acknowledgement or any other type of response.

Where can I get more information?

1)  www.driveclean.com.  Call up this site to access the text of the proposal or go directly to http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envregistry/026516ep.htm.  Please call up this site and read page 5 item 2 - it deals specifically with collector vehciles.

2)  www.svao.org

3)  www.naaaccc.ca

[2ML67]

My sympathy's for the 88 owners but the rest of us who have had to settle for an 87 or older Fiero are breathing easy knowing we were missed by the goverments latest screwing. This does mean that I can continue on the header project for my 3800SC Fiero. Dan

[Rob]

Really, its a good Idea, There is a lot of scarry Dangerous vehicles out there on the roads, and if this is one way to get them Off the road, by upping the price to 600 dollars for a pass, and to test older cars. Its not hard to make a car pass, for much less then 600 dollars too. if you tune your car up, run premium gas for the test, and have a working cat converter you should pass.. If your car is in such rough shape that the engine is producing that much toxic gasses.. then what kind of shape are your brake/fuel lines, or the frame, of your vehicle in...

[dguy]

If your car is in such rough shape that the engine is producing that much toxic gasses.. then what kind of shape are your brake/fuel lines, or the frame, of your vehicle in...

I have no problem with regular testing of commonly used vehicles... but the elimination of the 20 year old rolling exemption blows chunks as far as I'm concerned.

Prove to me that there are now, and will continue to be in the future, a significant portion of collector cars in regular use that are running dirty, and I'll go along with it.  I'm talking quantitative stats here BTW; no speculation, no hearsay.  Actual numbers through which one can compare the proportion of regularly driven 20+ year old cars compared to younger models.

(not to mention that modeling the Drive Clean program after US states which don't know what winter is and therefore are more likely to have a greater portion of old clunkers on the road, is nothing short of lunacy)

[x-thumpr-x]

If they want to try to keep smog down, they should be looking at milage not age!   How many Taxis, couriers, or any delevery vehicles  running around downtown that will be exmept becuase they are under 5 years old with 300/400 + KM on them?

[Madscanner]

Hi Folks

It will be interesting to see how this pans out - in the UK, annual inspections are  mandatory for all vehicles over 3 years old. This has been in force since the 70s, with no age exemptions. Some vehicles (PSVs, I think - Public Service Vehicles, i.e. buses) have to be inspected every 6 months.

The only concessions we get here relate to when various legislation came in e.g. VIN plates were not mandatory until 1971 (ish), so my 1965 Mini was not required to have one fitted. Other quirks of the system - I you have something fitted, it must work, although it may not have to be fitted, e.g. spare tyre - you don't have to have one, but if you do, it must be road-legal and inflated.

We had a tax concession granted (back in 1996, I believe) which meant that all cars 25 years or more older were exempted from the annual licence fee. This was originally meant to be a rolling concession, but successive governments have refused to honour the commitment....


In spite of this regime, we still have a surprising amount of junk on the roads here - this is probably down to the lack of enforcement by the police. Unless you are stopped for speeding, or are involved in an accident, you are highly unlikely to be stopped for having a cracked windscreen or light not working.

[GoFast88]

I am just a little pissed off at the governments rules.     Used to be a time that you didn't need a license to drive. They say that they have to know how many people are on the road. Nowadays, you don't pay your alimony they take away your Drivers License. They say that they want to take the "smoke wagons" off of the road so they institute an emmissions test and then insist that a brand new vehicle has to pass it. I came back from Cuba where, in the citys you have to hold your breath when a vehicle goes by. I would assume that is true in Bangkok, Africa or most other countries in the world. I have seen vehicles that preform well and don't belch smoke and don't pass because of .01% of something. Has the system gone terribly terrible wrong somewhere. MY RANT FOR THE DAY.