Transport committee  Right. Just to clarify the situation, as Toyota Canada, my responsibility is to issue a recall notice the moment I become aware of a defect—

Transport committee  To go to that, CTS also is engaged in supplying gas pedals in other parts of the world, and there had been an issue with respect to certain pedals in use in Europe in right-hand-drive vehicles. In that case, once we discovered that there were some common conditions, engineering began discussion: one, was there a problem, and did you identify it; and two, how do you go about engineering a solution to it?

Transport committee  Again, from a Toyota Canada standpoint, we're responsible for the vehicle. The discussions with CTS would have taken place with engineering on the manufacturing side of the business, and Toyota Canada is not part of that structure.

Transport committee  Thank you. I think it's important to understand that one of the differences in customer handling obviously comes down to policies operated between Toyota Canada and Toyota Motor Sales in the United States. Every new vehicle in Canada is sold with roadside assistance. These are late model vehicles, so in general all of our vehicles that were affected by the recall were also covered by the provision that would allow for free towing of vehicles to our dealerships.

Transport committee  Thank you. Mr. Chairman, the issue of the 60% relates to the fact that since we announced the recall, 60% of the vehicles have come into the dealerships and have had the remedy applied. We can only do that as quickly as customers bring their vehicles to our dealerships. Every customer has received a letter from us asking to bring their vehicle in, and our dealerships have the capacity to do this work.

Transport committee  Those are two different issues. If I may, what we indicated was two things. We would do a general advisory to our customers, which we're doing in waves. With respect to people who have affected vehicles, every one of those customers has already received a letter from us.

Transport committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to explain very briefly that if you look at the complaints in the Transport Canada database, many of those references to surging reflect normal operation of the vehicle, because with the electronic throttle control, revving of the engine changes, depending on vehicle requirements.

Transport committee  Thank you. Mr. Chairman, that is a very important question, and it goes to the heart of when do you discover there is a defect? When a customer brings a vehicle to one of our dealerships they register a complaint with the dealership to say, “All right, I have experienced something.

Transport committee  No, there is no intent to hold back information from the regulators, and in fact any information that Transport Canada has ever asked for we have supplied to them. The issue is in that investigation phase when you have something you just simply don't understand. At that point it may or may not be a problem.

Transport committee  Mr. Chairman, thank you for convening today's hearing. In a perfect world there would be no need for recalls, and that of course at Toyota is always our goal, but we know we also can't assume a perfect world. To that end, Toyota has developed a unique product servicing approach.

Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada committee  I was just going to say that the investments that need to be made to develop the technologies for the next vehicles have been made. The company is moving very rapidly to change its internal practices in order to conserve resources, in order to carry the business forward. So starting in a better position with greater liquidity, having moved as quickly as we have to address those basic business issues, it's highly unlikely that you would see us at the door.

Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada committee  Much like the oil crisis and every one of those pivotal points in the industry, I think what emerges on the other side is not just a different industry but also a different consumer, who is looking for something other than what they were seeing previously. I think this is a three-way partnership, frankly.

Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada committee  We're offering it right now.

Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada committee  We're offering it as a special program in the spring market. We'll have to wait and see whether it goes on beyond that.

Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada committee  It covers your contract.