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EcoAuto Rebates Idling

By Jack Knox

Funny how governments can implement new taxes right away, but somehow find it much harder to speedily deliver breaks for consumers.

So it is with Ottawa's EcoAuto program, announced with much fanfare in the March budget.

At the time, the feds had no problem figuring out how to collect a punitive tax of up to $4,000 on big SUVs and other gas guzzlers.

But six months after the EcoAuto program was unveiled, the feds are still working out the details of the other half of the equation, rebates of up to $2,000 promised to buyers of environmentally friendly (relatively speaking) new automobiles.

Ottawa said all along that it wouldn't be ready to start issuing rebates until after its internal administration systems had been worked out this fall, that buyers should just hold on to proof of purchase of qualifying vehicles bought after March 19 of this year, and watch for further instructions on the website http://www.tc.gc.ca/programs/environment/ecotransport/ecoauto.htm.

That still holds true, Transport Canada spokesman Robin Brown said yesterday. "We're on track to meet that target."

Still, he could offer no clearer idea of when car buyers can expect their cheques. Strange that we're in September and Ottawa still can't tell us when it will deliver on a promise made in March.

Not only that, but with new cars rolling into the showrooms, there's still no official word on which 2008 vehicles qualify for the rebate, no update on the list of 2007 and 2006 models identified this spring. The assumption is that Transport Canada will use the same yardsticks - mainly a fuel-efficiency standard of no more that 6.5 litres of gas guzzled for every 100 kilometres travelled.

It all smacks of policy hastily written on a napkin by a government that suddenly realized Canadians care about the environment, and that it had better be seen to be doing something. Stephen Harper's Saul-on-the-road-to-Damascus conversion to the green movement, achieved mere days before the budget, smacked more of political opportunism than conviction.

Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants in Ontario, isn't impressed. The auto industry has lost confidence in the conservatives, what was advertised as a revenue-neutral program could net the government $30 million to $50 million, and buying trends haven't changed, he says. "It's had zero impact on the environment." The only notable consumer shift has seen buyers switch from SUVs, which are subject to the excise tax, to even less fuel-efficient large pickups, which are exempt.

"It's a total mess," says DesRosiers.