Mr. Speaker, the motion moved by my colleague from Calgary North is a logical one, a motion of practical sense.
I encourage members of the House to listen carefully to the debate. The motion is realistic and I urge the House to adopt it when it comes to a vote which I assume will be on Monday.
The title given the bill does not sound like one that should be sponsored by an environment minister. Bill C-94 is an act to regulate interprovincial trade in and the importation for commercial purposes of certain manganese based substances.
Why is the Minister of the Environment so keen on the passage of the bill? When one sees something this discordant it usually plays out in the end, when all the documentation is finally exposed, that a short term political deal has been struck. Someone has the inside track and then much puffery is used to hide the intent.
The bill presented by the environment minister has nothing to do with helping clean up the environment. Consequently one has to ask what is really going on here. Few believe the minister, yet she proceeds with justifications. It is embarrassing to watch.
In theory one would expect that a minister of the environment would have little in common with car makers. After all, cars are the leading cause of smog. I suppose that when we look at where the minister resides the notion becomes a little clearer. Hamilton East is right in the heartland of auto makers central.
Not long ago officials from the Department of the Environment came to my office to explain the background of the bill. When they were asked what impact the bill would have toward helping the environment they had to admit it was slim to none and at best maybe only indirectly.
Some time ago I received an explanation of the onboard diagnostic systems that are said to sometimes not work when MMT is included in gasoline. According to the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association the 1996 cars are to be equipped with the latest technology but because MMT is still in Canadian fuel they simply unplug the sensor lights for the systems.
Canadians need to picture this. Canada's environment minister is banning the use of a fuel additive because a little part on a car is said to create a premature warning light to go on. Where is the national environmental concern here?
I am not disputing that onboard diagnostic systems may be beneficial. Politicians hoped they would make car pollution equipment more reliable so they ordered manufacturers to put them on. Consumers sure did not ask for it and the reluctant car makers also balked.
Car makers kicked back and designed a scheme to blame someone else for their technical failures and shortcomings and their unwillingness to pay. Let us be clear: OBDs do not regulate or control emission systems, neither do they clean anything. I think some people are assuming these devices will reduce pollution from our environment. It is just adding warning lights, or as we used to say idiot lights, on the dashboard that signal that the existing pollution controls are normal.
Imagine it, idiot lights for cars are a legislative priority of the Minister of the Environment. The minister likes lights on her dashboard, so she brings a $1 billion disruption to the Canadian petroleum industry to get a little lighted colour in her driving experience. When the public absorbs what the minister is doing I know what they will want to do to her lights.
In the United States the Environmental Protection Agency placed a moratorium on MMT in 1978. It was a raw deal by some American politicians and regulators that will eventually be corrected in the courts. So far the United States court of appeals found that the EPA did not have the evidence to prove that MMT should not be used.
Banning MMT in Canada is not an environmental issue. However it could very easily have been had Health Canada found it harmful but it did not. It could not, no matter how hard it tried. In fact Health Canada on December 6, 1994 issued a report entitled "Risk Assessment for the Combustive Products of MMT". It reported: "All analyses indicate that the combustion products of MMT in gasoline do not represent an added health risk to the Canadian population".
I am sure the minister would have liked to put the substance on the listed schedule under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act to please her friends, except Health Canada got in the way and made an unfavourable ruling.
If the minister could have banned MMT under CEPA she would not have needed this legislation. If the environment minister cannot prove this bill will directly affect the environment then I say this should not be an environmental bill.
The Minister of the Environment is telling Canadians the removal of MMT will significantly improve the quality of our environment. That is wrong, very wrong. The removal of MMT will increase nitrous oxide or NOx emissions by 20 per cent. That is why MMT is used. It is there to make gas burn cleaner, to help the environment. In case Canadians do not know what NOx creates, it is smog.