Mr. Speaker, I am continuing on from my speech which was interrupted by a vote on Tuesday.
The environment minister claims MMT contributes to sparkplug failures, in particular a type of sparkplug manufactured by General Motors. GM claims there were more warranty complaints against one of its single engine sparkplugs in Canada than in the U.S. and MMT was to blame. However, studies conducted by the Southwest Research Institute demonstrate that a short circuit problem occurs in the brand new plugs and it has nothing to do with MMT. It is also important to note that GM has since withdrawn the sparkplug in question from the North American market. Therefore, in short, that argument does not hold any weight.
What we seem to be missing on this issue are the facts. The Canadian Petroleum Producers Institute has called for the environment minister to allow industry to examine MMT and its impacts in a fact based joint assessment which would be conducted by PPI and the automakers; in other words, get the two players in the same room.
Why has the government refused to call for or conduct an independent technical review? The largest fuel additives testing program in history conducted over five years for the U.S. EPA concluded MMT poses no problems for vehicle emission systems.
In addition, the recent decision by the U.S. court of appeals determined that MMT does not cause or contribute to a failure of any emission control device or system. The EPA testing program looked at MMT's effects on catalytic converters, onboard diagnostic systems, exhaust systems and sparkplugs among a variety of other factors. The EPA concluded MMT passes the most critical of tests with a comfortable margin.
As a result of the U.S. EPA testing program, MMT may be introduced in the U.S. by the fall of 1995. Why then are we banning it in Canada when the government has stated it wants a uniformity of standards with the U.S.? The result of the U.S. court decision alone would be sufficient reason for the government to withdraw Bill C-94.
We need to look closely at why we are being asked to consider banning interprovincial trade in MMT. This proposed ban clearly contradicts Bill C-88 which is intended to remove barriers to international trade and constitutes unilateral interference into interprovincial matters. We need to have some solid evidence before making such a move.
Bill C-94 must be examined more thoroughly by the industry committee. As it stands we are still left with more questions than answers. Without any legitimate answer from the government the bill cannot be justified.