Madam Chair, one of the things we identified in the audit that Transport Canada was in fact doing quite well was overseeing defects and recalls. That whole area of consumer protection and when a vehicle isn't living up to standards, I think they were managing well.

Again, we identified that the department didn't have access to some information from the manufacturers, so there are some things they should be able to get more information about, but they were doing a good job on the recall and defects side of things.

Going back in terms of the issue of the U.S. and the regulations, obviously there is an interest in trying to keep those regulations as close as possible, but I think all of that just needs to be well defined and designed within the regulatory framework in Canada. You know, how much of an influence is there going to be in the U.S?

Again, the types of issues we raised, the fact that they were waiting for the U.S., I think are symptoms that resulted in the bigger problem, which was that it was taking Canada 10 years to put a regulation in place. When you have a system that takes10 years to put a regulation in place, that's the indicator that the department needs to be working on. They need to figure out, “Well, if we want to be able to react more quickly, how do we do that in terms of also being able to stay in line with the U.S?”

The issue isn't so much whether they should or shouldn't be trying to stay aligned with the U.S. The issue is more how that is taken into account in the whole regulatory system. Is that the primary goal? If so, let's state it, and let's figure out then how Canadian regulations are set afterwards.

I think it's more about having clarity around that issue then saying they should or shouldn't be doing it.

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