Bill S-2 (Historical)

Strengthening Motor Vehicle Safety for Canadians Act

An Act to amend the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and to make a consequential amendment to another Act

This enactment amends the Motor Vehicle Safety Act for the purpose of strengthening the enforcement and compliance regime to further protect the safety of Canadians and to provide additional flexibility to support advanced safety technologies and other vehicle innovations. It provides the Minister of Transport with the authority to order companies to correct a defect or non-compliance and establishes a tiered penalty structure for offences committed under the Act. The enactment also makes a consequential amendment to the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada Act.

[Ian Jack]

It depends on what kind of framework we're looking at. As you would know, in Bill S-2 there's some language that would enable the minister to allow AVs to be tested on Canadian roads. We're very supportive of that.

We need some framework, because things should be happening right now that would be illegal technically, such as testing of AVs. If we want to have any kind of R and D in this country, we obviously need to be able to test those vehicles at some point. I can't imagine it was the intention of those who framed the bill originally that we wouldn't be allowed to do that kind of work. We're very supportive of that part of the framework.

Beyond that, absolutely, there needs to be more of a framework. We testified before the Senate committee, which looked into this issue extensively. We do polling on this issue. We know roughly where Canadians sit: they think AVs are coming, but they're kind of scared of them right now, so there needs to be more talk, public education, and policy work done. We understand there is at this point a DG-level committee in government across a bunch of departments looking at some of the issues, which will inevitably touch on all kinds of departments.

Insurance regulation is very interesting, and the Department of Transport obviously is going to be implicated in this, as well as ISED. It is truly an interdepartmental issue.

Data privacy is an issue we care a lot about at CAA. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has been looking at this as well. Who controls the data that your vehicle will be collecting about you, or is already potentially collecting about you, as we move into this era of the smart phone on wheels? That's even before AVs. That's in the next 10 to 20 years, before everybody's in an AV; we are going to have vehicles collecting a heck of a lot of information about us.

[George Iny, Executive Director, Automobile Protection Association]

Good day. I'm George Iny, executive director of the Automobile Protection Association. With me is John Raymond. He's a member of the board of the association and also a former auto dealer. He works very closely with us on a number of issues, including vehicle safety.

The Automobile Protection Association, APA, is a not-for-profit organization. It was founded in 1969. It provides a public information service using telephone hotlines and a website.

We are one of the major sources of complaints to Transport Canada on presumed vehicle safety. We also work closely with university research teams across Canada to encourage proper oversight of the vehicles on our roads.

We are a small team. We even do a lot of work with people from the industry because we much prefer realistic solutions, but always while representing the interests of consumers.

I'm here today to go over perhaps some of the measures that are in the proposed Bill S-2. I'll try to give you a little colour or background information to go with it. Currently, there is a database where you can look up vehicle recalls. It's a very good database. It's an old one. But it's not in real time, so you will find out if there ever was a recall for your vehicle, but it will not tell you if your actual vehicle was fixed or not and we would like to have that ability.

In the time between when Bill S-2 came out and today most carmakers, because there's an American requirement, came on board and are pretty much doing that. This would allow the stragglers to be picked up. It would also allow the government to put in perhaps some minimum information that you would be able to get, because not all of the websites are easy to use and not all of them give you the full information on the recall.

This is an important pre-condition if you want to get used cars corrected before they're resold. It's a big problem, and one of the objections the retailers have, and also the provincial ministries, is that there isn't a standard way to look up that information that's easy. I might add that a provincial safety inspection, which people assume involves a check for recalls, actually doesn't currently. The two systems don't talk to one another. So if this is fixed, in other words, if we have at least standardized, good quality real-time information, then maybe that might be included as part of the inspection process.

Administrative monetary penalties would be a more expedited tool than using the courts. The government doesn't go to court very often and when it does, it loses, so this would be something that we're hoping would be used more. It's a little difficult, because you're giving basically a gym membership to somebody who you don't know is actually going to use it and get stronger, but that's our hope. They would be creating a tool that the government could then use, and in that case it would allow it to have a little more leverage with carmakers that aren't being very compliant.

An important provision that we feel the administrative monetary penalties should have is a set-aside for research in the area of vehicle safety or injury reduction. Most of you are aware that Volkswagen was not so recently found to have cheated on diesel engine emissions, but actually the people who discovered it were working under an award, a research grant, from a previous investigation where a different carmaker or truck maker had been found guilty of cheating. In other words, some of that money if it's collected should be set aside to further the cause of vehicle safety.

On the power to order correction of defects, they've had it in the United States since the early 1970s or late sixties. It's a flaw in our original act that the way the act was written what seemed politically or maybe practically reasonable at the time was a letter by mail. Since then, essentially, events have overtaken our act, so more than 99% of recalls or about 600 a year are happening and, I would say easily 98% roughly are happening with what's called voluntarily. So the repair is being done by the carmaker either because they think they should do it or because they're required to do it in the United States.

We're looking at three, four, five, or six recalls a year where the government really needs more muscle. It's not a huge game-changer when you look at what's happening already.

[Ian Jack, Managing Director, Communications and Government Relations, Canadian Automobile Association]

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for your invitation. I am pleased to be here before you today to discuss Bill S-2.

Although I am sure many of you are familiar with CAA, let me begin by providing a bit of background on our organization's role in road safety.

We were founded in 1913 as a consumer advocacy group, not as a tow-truck company. Today, we have 6.2 million members from coast to coast and the services we offer them extend well beyond emergency roadside assistance. From our inception, our organization began advocating for critical pieces of the traffic safety framework in place today in Canada, and from those earliest days, in pushing for stop signs to seatbelts to airbags to campaigns against impaired and distracted driving, CAA has been at the forefront of traveller advocacy for more than a century. Today, we represent roughly one in four adult drivers in this country, and we are recognized as one of Canada's most trusted brands.

We have noticed that consumer protection in Canada has lagged behind other developed countries, and so we are pleased to see that Bill S-2 addresses several of the shortcomings.

In the United States, for instance, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, has the authority to require manufacturers to recall vehicles that have safety-related defects or do not meet federal safety standards. Since enacted in 1966, more than 390 million cars, trucks, buses, RVs, mopeds, and motorcycles, and 46 million tires, and 42 million child safety seats have been recalled to correct safety defects.

Here in Canada, CAA believes that for the owners of the roughly 23 million light vehicles on the road today, Bill S-2 is a positive step that would strengthen the enforcement and compliance regime to further protect the safety of Canadians. As drafted, we are pleased to see that the minister of transport would be provided with the authority to order companies to correct a defect or non-compliance, and would be given the ability to penalize companies for offences committed under the act.

While most manufacturers live up to the high standards we have set for Canadian vehicles, the fact remains that, even as we speak, Transport Canada has 16 active defect investigations under way. Of these active investigations, 13 date from before 2017. It must be said that there are instances where government intervention may not only be useful, but could even be necessary.

For example, on November 10, 2016, Transport Canada announced it had made a preliminary determination that there was a safety defect involving brakes on 2011 and 2012 F-150 trucks with a 3.5-litre EcoBoost engine; the department had received over 100 complaints about this. In his testimony before the Senate last fall, Minister Garneau said the government contacted Ford and was disappointed that the automaker disagreed with the government's assessment. The minister further pointed out that under existing legislation, the effective result at the time was a stalemate. Ultimately, there was a delay of nearly six months of public pressure that finally resulted in the automaker issuing a notice of defect on May 5 of this year. Bill S-2 would increase the tools available to the minister to limit delays like this.

Today, the strongest measure Transport Canada can take when dealing with vehicles it believes are a hazard to Canadians is to force the issuance of a notice of defect, which requires a manufacturer to notify owners that their cars are unsafe. That's it. The government does not have the power to force a manufacturer to order a recall and/or to effect repairs. This makes the current Canadian system a veritable, if not literal, paper tiger.

Bill S-2 shifts the focus to remedies. It gives the minister the authority to order a company to issue a recall and make companies repair a recalled vehicle at no cost to the consumer. The minister may even prevent them from selling new vehicles in Canada until they are repaired. This matches similar legislation that exists in the United States, finally leveling the playing field in these important areas for Canadian consumers.

Today, Transport Canada's website hosts information about vehicle recalls and encourages consumers to address their vehicle recall as soon as possible. However, we know that is not always in the control of the consumer. Bill S-2 is a necessary tool for enforcement when handling vehicle recall cases where the minister deems intervention is necessary, and it would provide positive, added protection for consumers.

For too long, Canadian consumer protection has taken a back seat to the United States. In our view, Bill S-2 goes a long way towards rebalancing the situation. It represents a solid advance for Canadian consumers.

Thank you for your attention.

We welcome any questions you may have.

Thank you.

[The Chair (Hon. Judy A. Sgro (Humber River—Black Creek, Lib.)), Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I am calling to order our meeting of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, pursuant to an order of reference on Wednesday, September 20, 2017 on Bill S-2, an act to amend the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and to make a consequential amendment to another act.

Our apologies for being late, but there was an issue in the House that we had to be there for. I will open the floor to whoever would like to go first.

Please introduce yourself.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Most of the report is not specifically tied to Bill S-2, but you mentioned one item today that I saw in the report and which I think is fairly applicable, and good news for the safety of Canadians. You highlighted that we're pretty good at identifying defects and discussing plans with manufacturers. It seems that's not a bottleneck in the system right now. With the new power to order recalls in Bill S-2, do you think, given that we're half-decent at this, the minister is going to have the information required to order recalls for things that do pose safety risks to Canadians?

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

In the fall of 2015 you initiated an audit. We saw this piece of legislation going to the Senate in the form of Bill S-2 in the spring of 2016. You were in the middle of your audit at this point in time. The bill then passes third reading in the Senate in February 2017, but by now Bill S-2 has been introduced.

I'm wondering whether there was a missed opportunity here. You had initiated an audit, and then this legislation was introduced while you were in the middle of the audit.

Do you have any role in terms of perhaps providing some advice to legislators as to whether it might be a good idea to wait until an audit is complete before they begin a process around introducing a piece of legislation that could have looked very different if we had the report in front of us?

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

I join my colleagues in welcoming you here today. I had the opportunity to sit in on the public accounts committee when you were in attendance and spoke to the recommendations that were made in this audit.

I want to take a step back and look at the process around not only your audit but the creation of this bill, and perhaps try to understand what role the work you do may play on the legislative process that we, as parliamentarians, find ourselves in.

It's been noted that this bill originated in the previous Parliament as Bill C-62, and was introduced in June 2015. Bill S-2 was actually introduced in the Senate in May 2016. It was then referred to the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications in October 2016.

Perhaps this is where you could correct me if I'm wrong. You had actually initiated this audit in the fall of 2015. Is that when this audit was initiated?

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

In your opinion, will Bill S-2, which will require companies to provide more information on vehicle safety, help to improve vehicle safety?

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Bill S-2 strengthens the powers of Transport Canada inspectors, including giving them the ability to collect information on collisions.

In your opinion, will that provision serve to correct, at least in part, the problem with collisions that you were critical of?

[Richard Domingue]

The example of the headlights illustrates the situation well. That technology exists in Europe but is prohibited in North America, in both Canada and the United States. There are a number of reasons for that, but essentially there is the resistance from the Canada-U.S. Regulatory Cooperation Council. It is not on the list of projects for which the regulations have been approved.

In Bill S-2, as we discussed earlier with the Minister, there is an opportunity for him to make exemptions and allow vehicles that do not meet the standards to enter the Canadian market. Those headlights do not meet Canadian standards.

As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Bill S-2 may help introduce into the Canadian market technologies to which we do not have access at the moment. We are sort of depriving ourselves of this technology for regulatory reasons.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Ferguson, thank you for being with us. My thanks also go to the members of your team. Your testimony is very enlightening. Earlier, when we received the Minister, I was wondering whether all the measures put forward were more like playing catch-up than a real proactive approach. I think we are starting to have quite a clear answer to that question.

I'd like to hear what you have to say about an aspect from your audit. You are saying that “Transport Canada did not develop motor vehicle safety standards to respond to emerging risks and issues in a timely manner”.

We now know that Bill S-2 will give the minister powers of exemption from certain regulations.

I would like to understand. Do we sometimes find ourselves in a situation where we could have advanced technology that is not accessible to us, like the headlights you mentioned earlier? Are we really faced with a road safety problem that we are not addressing because Transport Canada is not doing the tests?

Based on your audit, are we simply being deprived of advanced technology, or do we have a real safety issue?

My car certainly doesn't have the headlights you mentioned, but it has headlights.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

I have time for one last quick question.

In point 10 of your presentation, you said there were 318 recalls between 2010 and 2015. Of those 318, were you able to identify a hypothetical scenario, if this new bill was brought forward, Bill S-2, where the minister would have or should have the ability to interject and where it would be proper to force a recall?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I'll call the meeting back to order. We'll continue on our study of Bill S-2.

We have with us, from the Office of the Auditor General, Michael Ferguson, Auditor General of Canada. He is with Richard Domingue and Dawn Campbell.

Mr. Ferguson especially, welcome. It's nice to see you back again.

We'll open up the floor to you. Please go ahead.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC]

Absolutely. We have the information as to who participated in the consultation, and we can forward it to you. You mentioned the CAA. I think the association even reacted to our bill, saying it was a good thing.

However, we can provide the committee with a list of the organizations we consulted in preparation for Bill S-2.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Do you think it would be possible for the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities to receive the list of organizations and groups that were consulted when Bill S-2 was developed?

My question relates to another aspect of the Auditor General's audit. He seemed to suggest that, in previous consultations, the car industry had been heavily consulted, but the interest groups had not been consulted as much. Consumer and police groups, for example, or even the CAA, who are also significantly affected by this issue, had not been consulted as much. This raised the issue of possible bias.

Basically, we would like to be able to see whether, in all the consultations that took place in preparation for Bill S-2, the range of agencies consulted is wider.