One foot in the right direction

Older vehicles will have mandatory emissions testing in Quebec.

Bill forty-eight was introduced at the national assembly by the Charest government on Wednesday. It’s part of the provincial measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve air quality.

This legislation allows the government to require a vehicle to be tested before registration documents are issued. The testing will mainly affect cars that are eight years and older. Quebec’s automobile insurance board will refuse to issue registration plates if the car is too polluting.

Similar inspections are already mandatory in seven other Canadian provinces and forty American states. Greenhouse gases cause two thousand premature deaths annually according to the Canadian Medical Association.