MUCDA executive calls new bill ‘theatre’

By Myron Love


Nick Roberts, the executive director of the Manitoba Used Car Dealers Association (MUCDA) is describing the provincial government’s proposed Bill 15 – The Climate Change and Emissions Reduction Act – as “environmental protection theatre.”

The goal of the bill is to reduce the number of less fuel-efficient older model cars on Manitoba roads. To that end, the bill would ban the import by dealers into Manitoba of any model produced prior to 1995 for resale. That is not supposed to apply to trade-ins by Manitobans of their own pre-1995 models.

“We want to have that exemption in writing,” Roberts adds.

Classic cars deemed as 25 years and older are also exempt.

In the first place, Roberts says, Manitoba does not have the authority to regulate cross border trade. As well, he notes, there is nothing in the bill that would prevent a Manitoban from buying an older model out of province, driving it in the province for a couple of weeks and then trading it in at a Manitoba dealership.

Roberts does give the government credit though for following up a MUCDA suggestion and having Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) label pre-1995 models that MPI is disposing of with the designation “for parts only.”