Jan 04
Bob Lamb’s E-mail to TC on Recall letters
R Lamb E-mail to TC on RIV and recall letters
Bob Lamb (co-founder CWB) informs Transport Canada that the situation with RIV and recall letters will not be tolerated much longer and that CWB will take action.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Bob,
I have not brought my vehicle into Canada yet so I have not had to deal with RIV and Toyota Corp (US) regarding this recall letter. My dealer in the US has indicated that he will provide me with a letter. It is the only problem that I feel I will encounter when I attempt to bring the vehicle into Canada next week and have it registered here in Canada.
Thank you very much for leading the charge in this regard. I will follow up with my own letter to these same individuals this evening.
Let’s put the same pressure on these people that we applied in regards to the electronic immobilizers.
January 5th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Hello Robert,
I have written numerous letters to your website. In many of my letters, I have expressed my firm belief that corruption is at the heart of the problem that we are facing today and that such corruption started many, many years ago. The present Minister of Transport may have absolutely no idea whatsoever, as to the activities of the past that have led to the completely unacceptable situation that we are confronted with today. The so called safety standards that Transport Canada has enacted, over the years and the procedures by which it enforces them, have very little to do with safety and serve only one purpose. Their purpose is to frustrate and where possible, totally block importing by individuals. No Cabinet Minister in his right mind, concerned about his reputation, about his career and about his future, would deliberately do this, in the manner, in which it has been done. Quite likely, none of the Transport Ministers that we have had, during the past thirty years, have even understood enough about cars and the car business themselves, to know enough on their own, what to do, to deny us our rights. Importing and exporting is our right, enshrined in the free trade agreements that we possess. No, I am sure, these Transport Ministers have been shielded, kept at a distance and even misled, one by one, as to the real effects of the regulations that they have, over the years,introduced. They have been influenced, they have been lobbied, they have been persuaded and they have been fooled into believing, that the safety standards that they have, from time to time announced and the regulations that they have enacted, to enforce these standards, are all for the good of the Canadian people. Somewhere, deep in the bureaucracy of Transport Canada, someone planted a seed, many years ago. The professional lobbyists, operating in Canada are numerous, they work for large Corporations, their pockets are deep and sometimes, as we have recently been told, they even pay in cash. Certain bureaucrats could, if offered the right incentives, easily find it impossible to resist the temptation to influence policy, to recommend standards, to shape the regulations, all with one goal in mind. It would not be just one single action. It would be many attempts made over many years. The situation that we have today, is that Transport Canada does not work for us, the people. Transport Canada works for the big foreign owned multinational manufacturers. The question is why ? The answer is MONEY ! and the next question is, who has been paying MONEY to whom ? We may never find out. It is not hard, however, to point the finger in the right general direction. Somewhere, deep within the bowels of Transport Canada, many, many, years ago, someone, persuaded someone, to start fine tuning standards, regulations and policies, to ensure that Canadian individuals and small independents can neither import, nor export. Transport Canada is not a credible Government Ministry today. The Minister of Transport, to be kind in remarks about him, can best be described, as completely ignorant of what his ministry is doing to the Canadian people. The bureaucracy that works under him, can only be regarded with the greatest degree of suspicion. As for the RIV, the privately owned, profit making, unelected, untendered, highly disrespected, “quasi, government by contract”, it can not be depended upon, by any Canadian, for doing the job that it was supposedly created to do, for it behaves, as if it is working for the big manufacturers too. It makes up new rules that have no basis in law. It changes the rules on a daily basis. It gives out different answers to the same question, to each person, who asks that question and different answers to a person, each time that person asks that question. It would be a very easy thing, to do, to deliberately hire incompetent, untrained people, to deliberately allow such people, to make such a complete mess of their work, that the entire system brakes down, which is exactly what has happened. It would be very easy to do that, if one was compensated adequately for doing so, particularly, if one was a customs broker and one was awarded lucrative customs brokerage contracts, to handle billions of dollars worth of parts and materials imports, finished product exports and other customs services around the world, by the very same people who want someone to stop other people from importing and exporting cars. Has anyone checked lately, to see, if the company that owns the RIV, which is, one of the biggest customs brokerage firms in the world, has contracts to handle the importing and exporting for the worlds major car manufacturers ? and if so, with which ones ? This mess, which may turn out to be, if it is eventually exposed, one of the worst scandals in Canadian government history, is much bigger than and runs much deeper than just an immobilizer. It is a scandal that was deliberately intended to immobilize us. We can not allow this to continue. We must have an inquiry, now !!!
January 5th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
During one of our conferences Kash Ram stated that Transport Canada was the final authority on whether a car meets Canadian admissibility standards.
To: Transport Canada: Do your Job
1: Force the Car manufacturers to meet all Canadian standards via periodic inspection.
2: Harmonize with the USA.
3: Once a new car leaves the assembly plant it should not require any further inspection.
4: The approved car should be accompanied by a Canadian government inspection approval stamp.
Once a car has cleared the CBSA at the border:
Importers should have to deal only with the Provincial License Bureau.
a: This will eliminate Recall/Clearance letters.
b: This will eliminate RIV involvement.
c: This will eliminate Transport Canada involvement.
d: This will eliminate Canadian Tire involvement.
e: This will eliminate price gouging car dealers and manufacturers.
January 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
We should start a Class Action Suit and try to recover the $500.00 BMW and other car manufactures are charging for the RECALL CLEARANCE LETTER.It is very clear that the Car Manufactures don’t want us to cross the borders and save $10000 PLUS on the same car sold here in Canada!! 3yrs ago there was no fees no problems importing!! Now all of a sudden they are making IT DIFFICULT and changing the rules each day!! I don’t recall ever voting for BMW when i went to the poles in QUEBEC!!
January 5th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Hi Bob,
I hope you have better luck than I had. I sent a letter regarding the
industry’s anti-competitive behaviour to the Competition Bureau and the Minister
of Finance Flaherty without much success. I received a reply from the
Minister’s office thanking me for the letter, but nothing else, and I
received a long winded reply for the Competition Bureau basically telling
me that there is nothing wrong.
I hope having the support of everyone on this website will make the much
needed difference.
Best of luck,
Helder
January 7th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Guys, count me in for the fight against the corruption and red-tape
and despicable under-table practices.
You have my vote
Sincerely
January 7th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
We have written to the following “head in the sand…organizations” without a reply … Competition Bureau, Sheila Fraser, the CAA, the APA, the CCA, the NDP, the Green Party.. the OBamma and Clinton, the US republicans, the US Fair trade practices comission… they all seem to have other priorities…
Maybe we need to consider information rallies??? What about the upcoming Montreal International Auto Show? Any takers?
January 8th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
It seems that this issue isn’t reported in the media as much anymore. I think that being in the public eye is key to putting pressure on the car manufacturers and their Government buddies. Perhaps if carwithoutborders contacted a consumer show like W5, Marketplace or The 5th Estate they would be willing to do a show on this topic?
PS
The information rally sounds like a great idea, provided there are enough people who attend this site that would go, or live close enough to travel. I live on Vancouver Island, so this would not be feasible for me.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Just a personal observation; the RIV website does have a list of manufacturers, and their contacts. Much trepidation, I called the Nissan USA number, and within ONE RING was talking to a REAL person. She faxxed the (non) recall letter to my office the next day. Nissan is doing it right, I think.
I can’t imagine trying to do this with say, a Chrysler or GMC.
January 9th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I agree with Cy’s comments. I imported few vehicles when the Free trade first started ( 1990-1991) and after coming thru the border and paying duties/ taxes if needed one just went and got the vehicle licensed after provincial inspection.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Robert, I noticed that this topic refers to an email you sent to TC regarding RECALL CLEARANCE letters but the actual email refers to ADMISSIBILITY letters, which are two different things. The letters of “admissibility” were never issued at the dealerships, they were always issued by the manufacturers so I believe your intention was to address RIVs recent refusal to accept recall clearance printouts from dealerships in lieu of a Recall Clearance Letter from the manufacturers. I am 100% behind you on this but I fear that your email to the RIV and TC personnel may have them scratching their heads.