Changes to Ontario?s Drive Clean program that exempt newer vehicles from the program will mean savings in time and money for families, Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci in a news release.
The government is keeping its promise to make the program more efficient and cost effective by exempting newer cars that are less likely to pollute, said Bartolucci. ?It does not make sense to spend time and money on testing three-year-old cars when more than 99 percent of them pass.?
A recent review of Drive Clean demonstrated that the program is successful in reducing smog-causing emissions from vehicles, but that it could be improved by focusing more on older vehicles.
Effective Jan. 1, 2006:
- Emissions testing for registration renewal will begin when vehicles are five years old, rather than three. This includes cars, trucks and buses.
- The exemption for 20-year-old light-duty vehicles is ending, beginning with 1988 models.
- Increased compliance measures make it an offence under the Environmental Protection Act to create, distribute or use false Drive Clean passes and allow emissions inspectors who commit these offences to be decertified more quickly than in the past.
Further proposed changes to the act include:
- Annual testing for vehicles 12 years old and older.
- Eliminating the test requirement for transfer of ownership between family members and when a leasee is buying out the lease on a vehicle.
