Mr. Speaker, we would expect Canada's environment minister to do what is right for the environment. We would expect the minister to consider our health to be a major priority when drafting legislation. Ultimately, we would expect that any legislation coming out of Environment Canada would have first been scientifically tested, making sure that there are no glitches in the bill.
Canadians expect the best. Yet what we have received over the last three years from this government are two of Canada's most irresponsible environment ministers. Allow me to share a couple of examples.
When the Deputy Prime Minister held the environment post, she had no clue what axe fell under her jurisdiction. When meeting with an environmental group, she was asked how her department would deal with endangered species. She thought that Canada already had an endangered species act. When she found out that Canada did not, she rushed to produce a weak proposal that would only cover roughly 4 per cent of all the land area of Canada. It upsets me to look across the floor and see a minister like this trying to run our country.
When the Deputy Prime Minister was first approached by the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers' Association in 1994 or 1995, it wanted her to find some way to get rid of MMT from Canadian gasoline. One would think that if a lobby group such as the MVMA were to approach a minister and ask for something, the minister would have the department do a thorough investigation and perhaps even conduct interim tests of its own. However, this is where the Deputy Prime Minister is different from other ministers.
Under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act there is a schedule of substances that are declared harmful to the health of Canadians and to the environment. The minister quickly discovered that she would not be able to ban MMT under CEPA. Therefore she had to find another route.
Her only way was to ban the importation and interprovincial trade of MMT. One can only wonder if she first checked with the Department of International Trade to see how this complied under NAFTA. However, seeing how the department is now scrambling to find a way out as a result of a NAFTA challenge by Ethyl Corporation, I would wager to say she did not check with the department first.
Getting back to CEPA and its schedule to ban substances, to get a substance on that list, Health Canada first has to declare that it is harmful. I know the statement has been heard in this House on many occasions but it needs to be heard again. It is like talking to a toddler. In order for the toddler to understand what is going on, something must be explained over and over again in simple terms. There certainly is a strong parallel between the learning curve of this Liberal government and that of a toddler: slow and tedious, and they sometimes lose their temper.
On December 6, 1994 Health Canada issued a report entitled "Risk Assessment for the Combustion Products of MMT". It stated: "All analysis indicate that the combustion products of MMT in gasoline do not represent an added health risk to the Canadian population".
On October 18, 1995 a Health Canada official appeared before the Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development and concurred that the 1995 report remained the position of the department. I really do not know how many more times government members need to hear that MMT is not harmful to our health. It is not a toxic substance.
From the very beginning Reform has unequivocally stated that it would support the banning of MMT if the government could show through an independent scientific test that MMT was harmful to the automakers onboard diagnostic systems, OBD-IIs, as they are called in the industry.
The Deputy Prime Minister believed the argument of the MVMA and proceeded to draft legislation that would ban MMT from unleaded fuel. The minister's explanation of this was that she believed the results of the MVMA, and who is going to argue with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler? So what has happened is that the minister has exposed herself as a pushover. Any lobby group interested in changing policy should go right to the Deputy Prime Minister because she will grant your every wish.
I would like to say that the current environment minister is maybe better than the first. I would like to say that but I cannot, not in respect of this bill. The minister had the opportunity to scrap the whole bill when the House prorogued but he did not. He too suddenly felt the enormous weight of the MVMA and caved in. Canada has a minister who can neither think nor talk for himself. The minister is in the same category as his predecessor.
It looks to me like Environment Canada is being dictated to by General Motors. If Bill C-29 passes, Canadians can be sure that more substances are going to be banned using the same process of push and shove.
Bill C-29 has essentially become a war between two very powerful groups. On one side we have the automobile manufacturers and on the other side is the manufacturer of MMT as well as the petroleum companies. Both have made cases of why MMT should be banned or why it should not.
The MVMA claimed that MMT gums up onboard diagnostic systems in all late model automobiles and claims that the only reason that onboard lights come on prematurely is the MMT in the gasoline.
However, when I have confronted experts in the auto industry on why onboard lights are also coming on prematurely in the U.S. where MMT is not regularly used in its fuels, they either refuse to answer or simply claim that there are still some minor problems with the systems.
Is it not funny that a malfunction in Canada is related to a gasoline additive while the same malfunction in the U.S. is related to a minor bug in the system?
This is why the bill should never have been introduced in the first place. There is no conclusive proof that MMT is harmful to our health, to our environment or to the cars we drive each day.
It is always the intention of the members of the Reform Party to work with the government on legislation. Like the government, we want what is best for all in Canada. As the member of Parliament for New Westminster-Burnaby, I want to do what I can to represent my constituents in the best way I can. I want to be able to consider every side of an argument and bring forward the best solution.
Bill C-29 did not take all sides into account, nor did it bring forward the best solutions. There was no independent testing, but rather high powered lobbying.
Both the Minister of the Environment and Deputy Prime Minister claim that the results from the MVMA tests prove that MMT should be banned. Unfortunately not only were the tests not made for all to see, they were done in conditions not similar to those in Canada. How can we believe tests that were conducted in a southern U.S. state when Canada never sees climate such as that?
In my opinion both ministers were blindfolded and gagged when they agreed to table the bill. No minister who had any understanding at all would agree to such a bill. It is no wonder why today the Minister for International Trade, the natural resources minister and the Minister of Industry are all furious about the possible passage of this bill.
Reform does not want to see any substance being used that is harmful. This is the spin the Liberals may have taken. But it is just plain wrong. What we are looking for is an independent test conducted by a third party to find out exactly what effect MMT is having on our health, if any, our environment or the onboard diagnostic systems of automobiles.
Recently the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute conducted its own tests with respect to MMT. In its test 144 vehicles were tested for emissions and the interim results indicate that both the emission levels as well as the performance of the OBD systems were excellent.
I simply want to make the House aware that there are tests that prove that MMT poses no harm. Reform is not endorsing the CPPI test. However, the case that we are trying to make is that if both groups are coming up with their own conclusions and if both conclusions have completely opposite results then there is only one viable solution: the government needs to conduct its own test. By not doing so, the minister is going to show Canadians that he does not want to do what is right. He is going to show that the legislation is not constructed using the very best of scientific evidence. I say demonstrate and then legislate.
If this bill passes through the House it will be a sad day for all of Canada. It will prove that the government has put special interests ahead of the interests of Canadians. I only hope that the other place will indeed use its power of sober second thought to shelve this bill indefinitely.