Anthony Jenkins/The Globe and Mail
The trouble with impulsively
leaping onto bandwagons is that you risk snapping your ankles.
The federal Conservatives were
so keen to be viewed as environmentally sensitive, and so worried by the
federal Liberals'
championing of the green cause, that they cobbled together a "feebate" program
for cars and trucks in their March 19 budget.
They did not consult the auto makers, which might have had a constructive
word to offer.
They did not prepare adequately;
even now, months after the announcement, nobody who bought an eligible 2006
or 2007
model has received a rebate. And the rules of eligibility are perverse. Yet
there it was, a surprise program in the budget,
and the car makers and the public are still trying to make sense of it all.
The ecoAuto program offered rebates
of $1,000 to $2,000 for 2006 and 2007 fuel-efficient cars and imposed levies
of
$1,000 to $4,000 for gas guzzlers.
The idea was to protect the environment
by conserving energy and reducing harmful emissions.
The reality is a mishmash of
standards. The fuel-efficient Honda Fit doesn't qualify for the rebate because
it requires 6.6
litres of gas to travel 100 kilometres in combined city-highway driving,
while the Toyota Yaris qualifies because it consumes
only 6.4 litres. Yet light trucks qualify if they consume 8.3 litres, and
pickup trucks, no matter how much gas they guzzle,
are exempt from levies because the Tories feared alienating their rural base.
Oh, and the Finance Department
added a couple of cars, including the Chevrolet Impala (which requires more
than nine litres),
to the list of rebate-eligible vehicles only a week or so before the budget.
It said it did so because they can use a fuel mixture
with 85 per cent ethanol. Trouble is, few Canadians have access to stations
selling the E85 blend. Most have to use gasoline.
It's the very definition of arbitrary.
Even the premise of penalizing those who buy fuel-inefficient vehicles is
questionable if it
deters them from replacing older vehicles that are even less fuel-efficient.
But the federal government obviously
had no clue how it would proceed with its policy.
Transport Canada spokesman Robin
Browne said Monday that the government "will finalize the program in the
coming months"
- interesting timing for a program announced four months ago. Honda, which
was so livid at the exclusion of its Fit and
manual-transmission Civic from the rebate program that it offered $1,000
rebates of its own retroactive to March 19,
is now in public-relations heaven. It has kept its promises, it says. But
those who trusted in the federal rebates remain in limbo;
Mr. Browne says the government "aims to issue cheques in the fall."
As for the 2008 cars, it hasn't even set a date to announce which models will be eligible for what.
It's basic that a government should know how to deliver a program before announcing it.