Sure, Derek, I can add to that.

I'd first say we very much appreciate that Bill C-59 highlights that there is a problem. What we would like to see from it broadly is the onus being taken off the consumer or the small shop, so that if they don't get access, they do not need to appeal. We think that the burden should not be on a small shop. If you take your car to your local mechanic and they say, “Give me a couple of weeks. I need to appeal to get this information”, you're going to go somewhere else. We want to avoid that.

We'd like to see it mandated that the car companies will allow the car owner to decide where they take the car and not have to go through that process each time they need an oil change or a brake change or when winter comes and they need to change their tires.

We're seeing instances now in which simply rotating tires requires access to data that some repair shops don't have. Specifically, we'd like amendments to include one to section 75 to make a means of diagnosis or repair available to a person within a specified period and on such terms as the tribunal considers appropriate.

Also, we'd like to have the trade secrets carve-out in subsection 75(2.1) struck down. We think that could just be used as a loophole. Obviously we have no interest in any of the car companies' trade secrets or intellectual property or access to any data other than for repair and maintenance, but we do see that as a slippery slope, in that the car companies could claim that any of that information was a trade secret.

Third, we'd like to see “maintenance and calibration” included in the proposed definition of “means of diagnosis and repair”.

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