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Regulation Proposal Notice:
Title:
Drive Clean Program – Repair Cost Limit/Conditional Pass, Drive Clean Inspectors and Repair Technicians, Resale Vehicle Test Requirements, and Islands without Access to Year Round Ferry Service (Remote Islands)

EBR Registry Number: 012-7969
Ministry:
Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change
Date Proposal loaded to the Registry:
August 24, 2016


Keyword(s): Air
Related Act(s): Environmental Protection Act, R.S.O. 1990
Comment Period: 45 days: submissions may be made between August 24, 2016 and October 08, 2016.

Description of Regulation:

In addition to recent announcements made in Ontario’s 2016 Budget to eliminate the $30 Drive Clean test fee, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) is proposing a number of improvements to Ontario’s Drive Clean program that require regulatory changes. MOECC is proposing that Ontario Regulation 361/98 (Motor Vehicles), made under the Environmental Protection Act (O. Reg. 361/98) be amended, and that the Ministry of Transportation bring forward proposed amendments to Regulation 628 (Vehicle Permits), made under the Highway Traffic Act (Regulation 628), to support this proposal. The proposed amendments to these regulations are described below.

Proposed Amendments to O. Reg. 361/98:
MOECC is proposing that O. Reg. 361/98 be amended with respect to:

conditional passes and the associated repair cost limit for vehicles that fail an emissions test; and
strengthening provisions relating to Drive Clean inspectors and repair technicians

1. Repair Cost Limit/Conditional Passes
O. Reg. 361/98 describes the conditions under which light-duty vehicles (LDVs) may qualify for a conditional pass in order to allow for a licence plate renewal. A conditional pass provides additional time for vehicle owners to pay for their vehicle to be fully repaired, following a failed emissions test.

Currently, to qualify for a conditional pass, a LDV must have:

failed an initial Drive Clean test;
either spent up to $450 (the current “repair cost limit”) in repairs, or had as much work done as possible costing less than $450, at a Drive Clean facility to repair emissions-related problems; and
failed a re-test.


a) Exclude Diagnostic Fees and Monitor Setting Fees from being counted towards the Repair Cost Limit
Diagnostic fees would not be counted towards the repair cost limit. This includes fees for work associated with performing diagnostic procedures on a vehicle to identify issues and required repairs, including: gathering information, assessing the issue, recommending repairs, estimating costs and performing a retest.

Monitor setting fees would also not be counted towards the repair cost limit. This includes fees for work associated with performing vehicle drive cycles to set on-board diagnostic monitors to a ready state for testing.

This will ensure that more of the money being spent up to the repair cost limit is going towards addressing issues with the vehicle’s emissions control system.


b) Annually adjust the Repair Cost Limit based on the Consumer Price Index
Beginning on January 1, 2018, the repair cost limit would be adjusted every year based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Ontario, as reported by Statistics Canada.


The amount would be adjusted upwards to the nearest $10. Should there be a decrease in the CPI, the repair cost limit would remain unchanged for that year.


The new repair cost limit for a calendar year would be posted on the government’s website no later than December 31 of the preceding year.


c) Prohibit consecutive conditional passes
Vehicles would not be allowed to receive consecutive conditional passes, and would be required to receive a pass at the next inspection cycle.

2. Drive Clean Inspectors and Repair Technicians
MOECC is proposing to amend O. Reg. 361/98 to give the Director authority to:
a) Give written notice requiring a Drive Clean inspector to retrain if he or she has performed incompetent inspections;

b) Give written notice decertifying a Drive Clean inspector who continues to perform incompetent inspections after being retrained; and

c) Give written notice decertifying a Drive Clean inspector or Drive Clean repair technician who has permitted the creation, distribution or use of a false report.

Proposed Amendments to Regulation 628:
It is proposed that Regulation 628 be amended with respect to requirements for licence plate renewal or when transferring a motor vehicle’s ownership in the following ways:

removal of the requirement for a Drive Clean Test and emissions inspection report for ownership transfers of LDVs; and,
applicability of the requirement for a Drive Clean test and emissions inspection report to LDVs registered to islands in Ontario without access to year round ferry service.

3. Drive Clean Test Requirements for Resale of LDVs
A Drive Clean test and emission inspection report would no longer be required before transferring ownership of an LDV. All LDVs will still require their first biennial Drive Clean test for licence plate renewal at 7 years old.


4. Islands without Access to Year Round Ferry Service (Remote Islands)
LDVs registered to islands without access to year round ferry service would not be required to meet the emission testing requirements of the Drive Clean program as a condition of licence plate renewal or when transferring a motor vehicle’s ownership (i.e. resale, proposed to be removed for all LDVs as described above).

The exemption would be limited to islands that:

have permanent residents,
have LDVs registered to permanent residents,
are not connected by road, bridge or causeway to the mainland or another island,
are only accessible to LDVs through seasonal ferry access, and
have distinct postal codes that are not shared with the mainland or with another island that does not meet the above criteria.

Purpose of Regulation:

The purposes of the proposed regulatory amendments to O. Reg. 361/98 and Regulation 628 include:


1. Repair Cost Limit (O. Reg. 361/98):
The 2012 Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario (OAGO) recommended that the MOECC consider either increasing or eliminating the Repair Cost Limit; requiring vehicles with a conditional pass to be retested annually rather than biennially; and limiting the number of conditional passes allowed over a vehicle’s lifetime. The proposed regulatory amendments described above are intended to respond to the OAGO’s recommendations and would provide the following benefits:

Excluding diagnostic and monitor setting fees from the repair cost limit would provide more room within the repair cost limit to cover costs directly related to repairing emissions-related problems.
The repair cost limit has remained at $450 across the entire Drive Clean program area since 2004. Annually adjusting this amount based on the CPI would compensate for inflation.
Prohibiting consecutive conditional passes would ensure that a vehicle does not continually obtain a conditional pass over its lifetime without having its emissions control system fully repaired.

Together these changes would, if implemented, improve environmental outcomes for Ontarians by making it more difficult for a vehicle owner to continue to operate a polluting vehicle with known emission concerns.

2. Drive Clean Inspectors and Repair Technicians (O. Reg. 361/98):
The purposes of the proposed amendments are to increase the competency of Drive Clean inspectors; make inspectors and repair technicians subject to the same potential consequences for incompetency; improve MOECC’s ability to respond to instances of fraud; and to deter inspectors and repair technicians from permitting the creation, distribution or use of false documents.


3. Drive Clean Test Requirements for Resale of LDVs (Regulation 628):
The proposed amendments are intended to respond to a recommendation in the OAGO’s 2012 Annual Report to use program data to better target polluting vehicles. Based on test data analysis, MOECC has concluded that vehicles 1-6 model years old have a low fail rate and therefore have few emissions concerns. All LDVs will still be required to have a biennial Drive Clean test for licence plate renewal beginning at 7 years old. As such, the majority of vehicle emission concerns will continue to be identified and addressed on a biennial basis, and the proposed prohibition against consecutive conditional passes will ensure that emissions control systems are fully repaired.


4. Islands without Access to Year Round Ferry Service (Remote Islands) (Regulation 628):
As a result of seasonal ferry service and unreliable formation of ice roads, there are periods of the year when residents of islands without year round ferry service cannot access Drive Clean Facilities. The purpose of the proposed amendments is to address this issue.

Because Drive Clean’s program boundaries are defined by postal code, islands would be required to have a distinct postal code in order to ensure that only island communities with seasonal accessibility issues are exempt from these requirements, and not residents on the mainland or another island that may share the same postal code.

Public Consultation:

This proposal has been posted for a 45 day public review and comment period starting August 24, 2016. If you have any questions, or would like to submit your comments, please do so by October 08, 2016 to the individual listed under "Contact". Additionally, you may submit your comments on-line.

All comments received prior to October 08, 2016 will be considered as part of the decision-making process by the Ministry if they are submitted in writing or electronically using the form provided in this notice and reference EBR Registry number 012-7969.

Please Note: All comments and submissions received will become part of the public record. Comments received as part of the public participation process for this proposal will be considered by the decision maker for this proposal.

Your personal information may be used in the decision making process on this proposal and it may be used to contact you if clarification of your comment is required. It may be shared (along with your comment) with other Ontario Ministries for use in the decision making process. Questions about this collection should be directed to the contact mentioned on the Proposal Notice page.

Contact: