Evidence of meeting #20 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was information.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
In that same letter back in February 2008, you indicated that Toyota had changed the material--to which you made reference--used in the friction lever to a PPS in order to address the deficiency. Am I right?
Liberal
Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
But then you started to receive complaints in December 2008, a few short months later, about pedals containing the new material. So you've already made the adjustment and you've put in new material, but you started to have problems anyway.
Then, in March of 2009, Toyota began the investigation in Europe that concluded the material was susceptible to moisture, causing the pedal to stick. So Toyota changed the pedal design to address this particular defect. Was a notice of defect issued to Transport Canada then?
Managing Director, Toyota Canada Inc.
The pedals used in application in Europe at the time were considered to exhibit a problem that was predominantly in right-hand-drive vehicles of a particular size in certain operational conditions.
Liberal
Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
Well, we'll come back to that in a moment, but in that same letter, you indicated that starting in October 2009 Toyota began investigating, in Canada and the U.S., reports of sticky pedals with the same friction lever, PPS, that Toyota investigated in Europe.
Now, those reports would not have been a mystery to Toyota, because they weren't a mystery to you. You've made reference to them. When these reports came to Toyota's attention, was a notice of defect issued to Transport Canada?
Managing Director, Toyota Canada Inc.
Well, Mr. Volpe, let me just correct the preamble to the question. In fact, at that time, I didn't have knowledge of the earlier events with respect to any of the pedal investigations as they applied.
When the issue first arose in Canada--and if memory serves me correctly, we had five FTRs issued before the recall on January 21--the first of those incidents was something we couldn't replicate or reproduce. So the first case where we could confirm there was the sticking pedal condition arose at the end of November.
Conservative
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Gentlemen, I wish to thank you for being here with us.
What I am obviously interested in is understanding the way in which all of this works. The law requires that you file a notice of defect. Indeed, as Mr. Volpe mentioned, when you become aware of a safety defect, you must give notice to Transport Canada. I know that there are timeframes.
My first question is for Mr. Tanaka.
Are you the person who receives the complaints or who supervises the assessments? What happens when a complaint is filed by Canada, the United States or a European country? Try and explain to me how this works.
Minoru Tanaka General Manager, Under Body Design Division, Toyota Motor Corporation
Yes. Let me answer. The complaints or claims from each region will be received by the dealer of that region. The technician in the region will conduct the hearing and the components will be recovered. If those components are recovered in Canada, they will be sent to CQE in L.A. or Cincinnati. Then they will be sent to CQE in Japan and engineers will take a look at them.
Are you asking how we receive those components or how we give feedback to each region?
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
I wish to know how you provide feedback to each one of the regions and how long this can take.
General Manager, Under Body Design Division, Toyota Motor Corporation
As I mentioned earlier, the CQE of each region will send information to CQE in Japan, where engineers will take a look at the issue. The design department in the investigation will feed back the information to the CQE in each region. Beyond that, it's not my responsibility, so I don't know.
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Who decides to come out with a statement that it is a safety defect? Is it the customer quality engineering, or CQE, for each of the regions?
General Manager, Under Body Design Division, Toyota Motor Corporation
No. That determination is not made in each region. At least at that time, the determination was made in Japan.
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Mr. Tanaka, it is important for us that you understand the matter of the timeframe. In Canada, our impression was that approximately three months elapsed before the decision was made.
Mr. Beatty, you told us earlier that you put in place a new and improved quality structure. It remains that everything revolves around the timeframe. I know that your customers are satisfied. The most recent statistics show this. However, what is a concern to me is the length of time it took. How could this timeframe be shortened, in order to not have to wait three months after a defect has been detected? Are we going to have to continue to follow this lengthy process? We must deal with Japan. There is a whole process that involves the dealer, the CQE in Los Angeles, and then Japan. That takes time.
Do you have a new and quicker structure?
Managing Director, Toyota Canada Inc.
Yes. Thank you.
We have put in place a new global quality and safety committee that is chaired by Mr. Akio Toyoda, the president of our company, and with that are regional safety and quality officers for each of the major areas of the world.
In North America, a chief quality officer has now been appointed. There are working committees that support him and Canadians are included on those committees. There is also an independent advisory committee with noted outside experts, including Roger Martin, a representative from Canada.
As for our vision of this, it of course takes a certain amount of time for technical investigation and determination to be made, but we want to ensure at all times that, if there is any lack of clarity, or a sense that there is a lack of speed in dealing with issues, or a lack of concern, we have people from the region who are represented within that decision-making structure and are able to help influence the outcome. That's a new program.
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
You must report defects to Transport Canada. At first blush, we would tend to suggest that you be required to immediately relay all complaints, as soon as you receive them, to Transport Canada. However, that would mean that Transport Canada would have to possess the necessary capability to analyze all of the complaints for all manufacturers' vehicles, and not just those of Toyota. However, vehicles are becoming more and more complex, more and more sophisticated.
If you were required to directly feed to the Department of Transport all of the complaints that your customers submit to you, do you believe the department would be able to respond to them?
Managing Director, Toyota Canada Inc.
I think it depends on the definition of a complaint. For example, anyone who brings his or her vehicle into a dealership may very well claim that in a particular driving condition they're feeling vibration, or feedback in the steering wheel, or whatever else. Those would be normal maintenance conditions, but they're all represented in our database as being a case or statement by the consumer about the vehicle.
We need to be able to understand what are routine issues that are just matters of maintenance or wear and tear versus something that is significant and a safety issue. So it's a definition that we need to work on.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for appearing here today on this particular issue.
Just to understand better the relationship in North America of Toyota Canada, how is the ownership structured?
Managing Director, Toyota Canada Inc.
Toyota Canada operates as an independent distributor. We're a fifty-fifty joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation and Mitsui. Just for your background, Toyota Canada began as a company called Canadian Motor Industries. We were a multi-brand distributor that was set up as a Canadian company. We've evolved over time to solely represent Toyota.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
In your manufacturing process in Canada, much of it is for the joint market of North America? How many vehicles are we seeing deployed in Canada from your plants, and how many are deployed in the United States?
Managing Director, Toyota Canada Inc.
I don't represent the manufacturing arm of the company—that's a separate entity—but if memory serves me correctly, current annual production is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 400,000 vehicles. In terms of product that would stay here in Canada, last year about 100,000 of the vehicles that we sold were built here in Canada. So roughly one quarter in any given year would stay here in Canada.
