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Latest Headlines
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Jun 4, 2008 12:21:00 PM MST
Feds unveil $92M program to sweep old clunkers from the roads (Fed-Clunkers)
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OTTAWA _ The federal government has announced a long-delayed program to give drivers incentives get older, polluting vehicles off the roads.
Environment Minister John Baird said Wednesday the government will give the Toronto-based Clean Air Foundation $92 million over four years to run a national vehicle "scrappage" program.
The program will offer incentives including rebates on new vehicles, free transit passes, bicycles, membership in ride-sharing programs and $300 cash. The rusty clunkers will then be turned over to scrapyards to crush and recycle them according to provincial guidelines.
Vehicles earlier than the 1996 model year will qualify for the Clean Air Foundation-run Car Heaven program.
Car Heaven was largely funded by General Motors and Imperial Oil, and it offered $750 toward a new GM vehicle to drivers who sent their cars and trucks to the scrapyard.
Baird says the national program will be up and running by January 2009. In the meantime, Ottawa will give $3.4 million to a patchwork of seven regional scrapping groups that until recently received federal funding.
Clean Air Foundation utive director Ersilia Serafini said she hopes to bring the other regional scrapping programs under its Car Heaven umbrella.
"We hope to work and talk with them over the next couple of months, and integrate them into the national delivery network of our national program," she said.
The regional programs would be expected to adopt the Car Heaven brand name, she added.
That didn´t sit well with at least one of the groups that in the past received federal funding.
Scott Gillard, co-ordinator of the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre´s Steer Clean program, said he´s not keen on partnering with a program that offers incentives to buy new vehicles _ which his group does not do.
"This was probably my greatest fear scenario," he said.
"The idea of re-branding, basically starting from scratch and with a program that´s very different philosophically from what we were doing, doesn´t seem very likely to me."
Environment Canada has mulled the prospect of starting a national program since last year´s budget set aside federal money for two years´ worth of scrapping initiatives.
The department consulted with environmental groups, regional scrapping organizations and other stakeholders last year to explore the possibility of starting a national program.
Then the department e-mailed the regional outfits in January to let them know an announcement was imminent.
"We anticipate that minister Baird will make an announcement about the new program within the next few weeks," said the Jan. 21, 2008, e-mail, obtained by The Canadian Press.
A recent Environment Canada annual planning report earmarked $90 million over the next three years for a national vehicle scrappage program.
The government estimates five million vehicles from 1995 or earlier _ predating today´s tougher emissions standards _ were on the roads last year.
These older vehicles make up just a fraction of the estimated 18 million vehicles in Canada, but they account for up to two-thirds of the pollution that causes smog.
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