DRIVE CLEAN HEADED FOR THE RHUBARB

   Premier Doug Ford, Environment Minister Rod Phillips and Transportation Minister John Yakabuski announced Friday morning that the provincial government will end the mandatory emissions test for passenger vehicles next April.
   “I’m proud to announce the end of the outdated Drive Clean program,” Ford said.
Drive Clean, the mandatory emissions test for passenger vehicles was brought in by the previous Conservative government in 1999 to curb polluting vehicles, a major source of smog.

  What began as a revenue-neutral program, became a profitable endeavor by 2011.  The annual report from the auditor general in 2012 stated that the improved pollution controls in vehicles accounted for the 75 per cent reductions in vehicle emissions, not Drive Clean.