TORONTO, OTTAWA -- Auto makers will be forced to do more to stop global warming by selling cars and trucks that emit fewer greenhouse gases starting in 2010, Conservative cabinet ministers told industry CEOs last night.
Just hours earlier, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty warned Prime Minister Stephen Harper not to hurt the province's auto sector by imposing new emission standards on Canadian vehicles. He also put Ottawa on notice that he will not have Ontario carry the brunt of the federal government's clean-air initiative.
In a meeting with five Conservative cabinet ministers, the auto industry CEOs were told the existing five-year voluntary deal between Ottawa and the auto makers to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions will be respected. But mandatory rules will take effect when it expires in 2010 that would likely include fines for auto makers that fail to meet targets to reduce pollution.
However, those targets won't be set right away. Instead, the CEOs will be consulted again on the details, and there was no indication last night that Ottawa was planning to bring in the much tougher reduction targets already set by California and other U.S. states.
More National Stories
"They certainly didn't say we're coming in with the California standards, so I feel a little better in that sense," said Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove, who was also invited to the meeting. Mr. Hargrove said matching California's standards, which are more stringent than Canada's voluntary targets, would be "devastating" for Canada's auto sector.
For the first time, a federal cabinet minister confirmed that all sectors of the Canadian industry will face regulation as part of the Tory government's fall environment plan.
"They will all be regulated. We told the auto industry that. They were not surprised," federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said.
Ottawa already regulates auto-sector emissions of smog-causing pollutants. In response to Mr. McGuinty's concerns, Mr. Flaherty said all sectors, including the oil and gas sector, will face new environmental regulations.
Other ministers in the room included Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, Transportation Minister Lawrence Cannon and Industry Minister Maxime Bernier.
Earlier in the day, Mr. McGuinty said the oil and gas sector in Western Canada should also play a role in helping the country reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, revisiting resentments over Alberta's vast resource wealth.
"The one thing we will not abide is any effort on the part of the national government to unduly impose greenhouse-gas emissions reductions on the province of Ontario at the expense of our auto sector," Mr. McGuinty said. "We will not simply stand back in case the federal government should somehow decide that Ontario will unduly be demanded to come to the table when it comes to reducing national greenhouse-gas emissions."
This is not the first time Mr. McGuinty has pleaded his case to Ottawa by noting the disparity between the economic fortunes of Alberta and Ontario. Last year, he suggested that Alberta be made to share its growing oil revenues with the rest of the country.
His comments yesterday irked Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, who is to retire this fall. "Maybe he's just mad because we are promoting coal. Clean-burning coal, that is," he told reporters. He said Alberta is the only province that has legislation restricting the growth rate of greenhouse-gas emissions.
A senior Ontario Liberal official said Mr. McGuinty is concerned that Ottawa plans to let the oil and gas sector in Alberta off the hook while punishing the auto sector. He said any move that hurts the fortunes of the auto sector would be a blow to the province, which has attracted $7-billion in auto investments under his government.
Under the voluntary deal, auto makers have agreed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 5.3 megatons by 2010, mainly by reducing fuel consumption across the entire fleet of vehicles available in Canada.
They will do that by introducing more hybrid vehicles that combine electric engines with a traditional internal combustion engine to improve fuel economy. They are also expanding the use of other technologies, such as cylinder deactivation or displacement on demand, in which the number of cylinders an engine uses when a vehicle is at cruising speed on the highway is reduced.
130