Apr 02
Transportation Canada issues proposal to amend Bumper Regulation!
The proposed amending regulations for Bumpers has been issued by Transportation Canada (Part I ) and now enters into the next phase of acceptance - All interested parities have 30 days to make presentations in writing.
In summary the chap responsible, Matthew Coons, Senior Regulatory Development Engineer, has written an excellent analysis statement based on input from the car manufacturers, the insurance industry and the CarsWithoutBorders submission provided last December. (many of our members contributed - refer to posts dated Dec. 25th and 28th)
Here are two important extracts :
“Many Canadian consumers wrote expressing their desire for the Canadian government to harmonize the test speed requirements with those of the United States, indicating that they did not see any safety benefit to the higher Canadian test speed requirement. The current unique Canadian requirements have resulted in some vehicle models from the United States being inadmissible for importation into Canada. Many Canadian consumers noted that this restriction not only limits their choice but also increases the Canadian price of some specialized vehicle models that are sold in limited numbers in Canada. In other instances, consumers noted a concern with what they perceive to be an excessive cost to modify conditionally admissible vehicles to satisfy the Canadian requirements. This occurs in situations where manufacturers allow for the U.S. bumper systems to be modified to meet the Canadian bumper requirements for the purpose of importation. This modification can often cost several thousands of dollars. One consumer group included a petition requesting the harmonization of test speed requirements, which was supported by about 1 400 Canadians. “
Extract two - concerning the Insurance Industry submissions:
“While these comments suggested that the current regulation provides repair cost reduction and safety benefits and that Canada should wait until further scientific evidence is available before making a decision, they did not provide detailed, quantifiable evidence that safety would be compromised if the test speed requirements were harmonized with the United States and Europe.”
It appears that only the Insurance industry opposes the legislation.
You can read the full text here.
We are sure that the insurance industry will be ramping up several key players to make sure this legislation does not pass. (Never short sell the opponent ) , so we recommend that all members take the following steps within the next few weeks:
1) Given your input we will come up with a short term program to go after our opponents - we will issue an e-mail requesting member input and ideas. With your support, Serge and I will dedicate our time to co-ordinate this initiative.
2) email Matthew Coons directly, indicating your support of the proposed amendments - coonsm@tc.gc.ca.,
3) The report indicated that their were two negative presentations from the ICBC ( Insurance Corporation of British Colombia ) and the IIHS - This is an independent, nonprofit, research and communications organization funded by the Auto Insurers. We need to make sure these folks know how unhappy we are concerning their position! (Note we are sure that many BC members will go after the ICBC!)
4) We need to get the message out to all other insurance companies, institutions, safety groups all across Canada that might be planning to oppose us! “You will lose us as a customer” - By way of this post we would like to solicit each member’s support to :
- Identify possible insurance Companies and Organizations that may be opposed, name of President, and all other contact details.
- Media team members - we need a form letter we can send off to these companies and organizations indicating the ramifications to their business if they oppose.
- We need members to then issue these emails and solicit support from other Canadians to do the same.
- We also wonder what some of our consumer “allies” the APA, the CAA , the CAC have been up to. They appear to be invisible on this issue. Their mandate is to help the Canadian Consumer! We need to contact them and find where they stand and what they are going to do!
Bottom line - at this time we would like your ideas and participation. We must move forward with an “awareness” program, that can counter the opposition.
Carswithoutborders was established and is committed to represent the average hard working Canadian Automobile Consumer. We need your help to make this program work. Please take a few minutes to participate and provide your input to info@carswithoutborders.com
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 am
“CHARGE!!!!!!”
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
From the report “”"One consumer group included a petition requesting the harmonization of test speed requirements, which was supported by about 1 400 Canadians”"”
They are actually listening - this is very good news - Our efforts, our petition etc. are working.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I’m optimistic that this legislation will pass and we will have the freedom
to purchase perfectly suitable vehicles down south and bring them back here
They let thousands of US visitors drive their own Vehicles up here ( they are not
turned back at the border), so the hypocrysy is amazing!
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Come on Canada, US cars are Canadian Cars, lets save everyone a pile of money. Let the manufactures save on economies of scale and stop the nonsense. Who are the insurance companies fooling. I no of no one that files a claim with Insurance co’s for 5mph impacts, most people fix their own these days.
Taken from the Bumper Q&A’s NHTSA Government website
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/studies/Bumper/Index.html
Under the Canadian bumper standard, the vehicle is impacted into a fixed-collision barrier that is perpendicular to its line of travel while the vehicle is traveling longitudinally forward at 8 km/h (5 mph) and longitudinally backward at 8 km/h (5 mph), with its engine operating at idle speed. Every vehicle is impacted twice on the front and rear surfaces and once on each front and rear corner with the impact line at any height between 500mm (20 inches) and 400mm (16 inches). While the impact speed in the Canadian standard is higher than that in the U.S. standard, the Canadian standard has less stringent protective criteria. Specifically, the protective criteria for the Canadian standard requires that the vehicle does not touch the test device, except on the impact ridge with a force that exceeds 2000 lbs. on the combined surface of the test device.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) regulation No. 42 requires that a car’s safety systems continue to operate normally after the car has been impacted by a pendulum or moving barrier on the front or rear longitudinally at 4 kilometers per hour (about 2.5 mph) and on the front and rear corner at 2.5 kilometers per hour (about 1.5 mph) at 455 mm (about 18 inches) above the ground under loaded and unloaded conditions.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:11 pm
The auto insurance industry derives much of its political power from the thousands of employees of insurance agencies who to keep their jobs are required to respond to the pressures of their employers, mostly Mom and Pop operations where there is a close working relationship between the employer and employee and the pressure may not be overt.
As a result, the insurance industry can inundate Government with tens of thousands of e-mails, letters and phone calls to the Offices of M.P.’s requesting that the government adopt a certain policy that is desired by the insurance industry and not necessarily the employees who make these communications.
These communications are substantially from the employees of insurance agencies who are simply responding to the request of their employer who in turn are responding to the request of the auto insurance lobby (e.g. Insurance Bureau of Canada).
This auto insurance group was powerful enough to keep the banks out of certain areas of their business.
The insurance industry will get what they want unless those Canadians who are interested in seeing the bumper standard and other standards harmonized with the United States sending e-mails to:
Transport Canada
“The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Cannon.L@parl.gc.ca cannol3@parl.gc.ca cannol2@parl.gc.ca cannol1@parl.gc.ca
M.P.” , Mathew Coons ; coonsm@tc.gc.ca
Patricia Skripsky ; SKRIPSP@tc.gc.ca
Environment Canada
“The Honourable John Baird, P.C.” Baird.J@parl.gc.ca
Industry Canada - who represent in a substantial way within the Government the interests of the auto manufacturers
“The Honourable Jim Prentice, M.P.” Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca
The Minister of Finance - who indicated that he believes that Canadian prices have equalized with those of the U.S….see CBC Nightly News April 2, 2008. http://www.ataleoftwoprices.com and carwithoutborders posts indicate otherwise.
“The Honourable James Flaherty, P.C.” Flaherty.J@parl.gc.ca
The Office of the Prime Minister
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper Harper.S@parl.gc.ca
Your M.P.’s e-mail address can be found by using your postal code at:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC
and please make Carwithoutborders aware of you e-mail request to
the Government by sending a copy to carswithoutborders at: info@carswithoutborders.com
I suggest that your e-mail state the following:
“I hereby request that all motor vehicle safety and environmental standards including but not limited to bumper standards be harmonized with the U.S. Any other policy adopted by the Government of Canada will continue to disadvantage Canadians.”
Include the following:
Name of sender
Civic address of sender
Telephone number of sender
Name of riding in which sender votes
The auto insurance industry has their own agenda which results in the auto manufacturers being able to extract in excess of $5 Billion a year from Canadians as a result of vehicle prices being higher in Canada than in the U.S.
Other threads on this site have drawn our attention to the loss of tax revenue by the Government of Canada given that the Canadian subsidiaries pay the parent company higher prices for vehicles and the profitability of Canadian subsidiaries is reduced and the profit is transferred without being subject to Canadian tax to other countries where tax is paid.
There is a great deal of money at stake so expect the collusion that has gone on to continue to the detriment of Canadian car buyers.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Clearly all cars should have wrap around steel cladding to lower repair costs resulting from 8km/h impacts. Go-karts typically possess this feature and the scientific analysis done supports the conclusion that repair bills are dramatically reduced. Proposed legislation will suggest that the steel cladding be expanded to cover the entire vehicle. In fact field tests in Afghanistan are consistent with expectations.
Sheesh…what next, helmets while driving?
Back to reality. Great job CWB! It definitely reads as if the change is reasonably assured and imminent. A study i found on the internet on the lowering of the bumper standards from the current Canadian standard to the US standard concluded:
(1) The costs to consumers have not changed as a result of the modification of the bumper standard from 5 to 2.5 mph.
(2) The net effect, over a car’s 10 year life, is a small increase in repair cost, which is offset by a reduction in the cost of the bumpers.
(3) The change in the bumper standard has not affected the protection of safety-related parts.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/regrev/evaluate/807072.html