Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to continue with Mr. Nantais.
Mr. Nantais, as you know—or as you may not know—I've been around cars since I was 14 years old. I started washing cars, and worked in parts departments, worked as a mechanic, and worked in various dealerships. I've worked every capacity in a dealership. I've sat on Suzuki Canada's dealer advisory board. I've sat on the CADA industry relations board. I have a lot of experience around the auto industry. And we've also been, amongst other things, an emissions test and repair facility since 1999.
When I first heard about the program announced in the budget, I was very suspicious, to be perfectly honest with you. I'd had experience with things like the air conditioner tax, the federal air excise tax that was brought in during the eighties, the provincial gas taxes that have been brought out, and they really didn't curb consumer appeal or demand. They didn't drive anything. They didn't really do anything except create a new tax.
That said, I think there are a couple of things we need to recognize about the direction of the auto industry over the last number of years. It's been in complete contravention of the direction in which we know, inherently, we need to go as a society.
As we talk about reducing greenhouse gas emissions—and I know the former government talked a lot about it, especially since 1997. What we actually did was we started building cars that were less and less fuel efficient. When I signed on in 1997 with the manufacturer that I represent, we had a car that got 58 miles per gallon. Our best car on gas for fuel economy now is 42 miles per gallon. Why? Well, because we kept on driving up horsepower numbers. We were feeding what people wanted.
I understand, because the auto industry is in the business of giving people what they want. That's what they compete on, creating appeal. Showroom appeal really sells cars. But ultimately the government has a separate responsibility, and that is to tell people that showroom appeal is important, but we really have to bring this back because greenhouse gas emissions continue to go up.
I applaud the vehicle manufacturers, believe me. I will tell you, from the point of view of an emissions test facility, that smog-causing pollutants in vehicles are down dramatically. People need to know how much cleaner today's cars run and the technologies they've developed, the safety technologies that are going into cars, the investments the manufacturers have made to make cars better in every conceivable way. And I applaud the vehicle manufacturers for that.
I also applaud you for the opening remarks you made with respect to the very positive things that are in the budget for the vehicle manufacturers, such as the accelerated capital cost allowance and other issues we put into the budget that assist the industry.
I did want to quote something here, and I want to get your remarks on it. This comes from a Toronto Star article of May 2:
The Canadian auto industry has smashed its sales record for April with a boost from the federal government's rebate program for fuel-efficient vehicles.
Sales and leases of new cars and light trucks jumped 9%, or almost 14,000, to 168,984 vehicles last month from the same period last year—
The big increase in Impala business fuelled a turnaround at General Motors of Canada Ltd. last month after significant monthly declines. GM's light vehicle sales jumped almost 16 per cent, or more than 6,000, to 44,651 despite two less selling days than April 2006.
Industry watchers said Ottawa's new program in March's federal budget contributed to the strong gain.
Dennis DesRosiers also said, “Since the Canadian consumer primarily buys small fuel-efficient vehicles, this incentive helped propel the market to its best April on record.”
Now, I recognize what you're saying--except that the government did make some very significant concessions in the new announcement. We excluded minivans because we know families need space. We excluded pickup trucks because we know workers need trucks. We've really taken a look at the program and asked how we can make it work best. We've also made very significant concessions for vehicles that will run on E85, flex-fuel vehicles. We see that result.
You made the point that big is no longer bad. We agree with you. That's why we put the money on Impala, and we'll see how the Impala does. There are other E85 vehicles that are doing very well. We're not telling everybody that they have to drive a small car. We're just telling them they need to drive a better car.
I'd love to get your comment on that.