Equity Concerns
Ontario's Drive Clean program provides no financial assistance to low-income drivers. This contrasts with otherwise similar mandatory emissions testing programs such as those in California, Texas and Arizona. Critics of Drive Clean, including the Province's own consulting firm, the Eastern Research Group, have strongly recommended that financial assistance should be provided. The repair cost limit is about to triple since the program's inception (from $200 to $450, and a proposed $600 RCL) while emissions standards have simultaneously become 23% more stringent leading to a greater percentage of vehicles that fail emissions tests. The social welfare effect is similar to that of a regressive tax, one imposed on drivers who cannot afford newer cars. As of 2006, some unofficial current estimates put the total cost of the program to Ontario motorists close to 2 billion dollars. The most recent verifiable figure, $1.1 billion (as of 2004), consists of some $435 million in Drive Clean test fees, and about $690 million for repairs to vehicles that failed. Costs for preliminary repairs to vehicles in order to qualify for Drive Clean tests have never been included in these figures, such as repair or replacement of corroded exhaust system components. Drive Clean test facilities are free to refuse to test any vehicle until such preliminary repairs are made.
The Ontario government also has a program to purchase and scrap old polluting cars called Car Heaven. This program is sponsored by General Motors and Exxon-Mobil among others. It is structured in a way which will cost taxpayers little, and acts as a small incentive for people to scrap older cars. This has the effect of boosting prices for remaining used cars by reducing supply, making it somewhat more expensive for low-income persons to drive in Ontario. Currently, the average car donation to Car Heaven is 16 years old (model year 1990-1991). The typical vehicle donated to Car Heaven would otherwise have been on the road for three more years.
On October 29, 2007, Laurel Broten was replaced as Ontario's Minister of the Environment (Ontario) in a post-election cabinet shuffle. Broten had become the subject of controversy when her neighbours complained about her application to build a two storey multi-car garage with an elevator at her house for her and her husband's four automobiles: a hybrid Ford SUV, a Volvo SUV and two sports cars - a Mercedes and a Porsche. Dubbed the "garage Mahal", the incident led to her political judgment being questioned.
Read more about this topic: Ontario's Drive Clean
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