Canada Auto Emissions Target Won't Start Until 2011, CAW Says

[tuvor]

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian automakers won't have mandatory pollution reduction goals until 2011 after the current voluntary agreement expires, the head of the country's biggest auto union said after meeting government officials.

``Anything they legislate wouldn't take effect until 2011,'' Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove said in a telephone interview in Ottawa after a meeting of auto executives and cabinet ministers from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party government.

Hargrove said officials also denied a newspaper report last month that said Canada would impose automobile emissions rules similar to California's, which are the toughest in North America.

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose is set to release a broad policy this month with mandatory pollution standards for companies including car manufacturers and oil and gas producers. Automakers such as General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. agreed on a voluntary basis last year to make vehicles that use cleaner-burning fuels.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=ar2c56eDwjB0&refer=canada