Transport Canada officials on hot seat

A top Transport Canada investigator says he was "appalled" when Toyota didn't indicate it was aware of any problems with sticking accelerator pedals before a recall here in January.

Trevor Lehouillier, the federal department's head of defect investigations and recalls, told a House of Commons committee Thursday that in the weeks before a Jan. 21 recall, Toyota officials made no mention of pedal problems during earlier discussions about floor mats that might cause sudden acceleration.

"As you would imagine, I was quite surprised and appalled at the fact they were not aware of it," Lehouillier said in response to questions from Conservative MP Jeff Watson (Essex).

Lehouillier, who was not investigating sticking pedals before the recall, said he contacted the U.S. Office of Defects Investigation for more information and learned that agency "had received the same story from Toyota U.S."

Toyota announced a major recall of more than 275,000 vehicles, including its three top-selling models in Canada, to modify accelerator pedals.

The modification aimed to eliminate possible sticking that could cause runaway cars and increase the risk of crashes.

That followed Toyota's "voluntary safety campaign" in November for modifications to stop any chance of mats sticking against pedals and unintended acceleration.

MPs on the committee peppered Lehouillier and Gerard McDonald, associate assistant deputy minister in the department's safety and security group, for more than two hours with questions about its investigations of safety defects in Toyota models after recalls left consumers wondering about the regulator and Toyota's vehicles. Toyota officials are to appear before the committee Tuesday,

Lehouillier's remarks supported earlier suggestions by critics in the recall controversy that Toyota's parent in Japan was directing the responses to defect problems around the world, rather than regional operations that could act more quickly.

Lehouillier noted Transport Canada received 17 acceleration-related complaints from Toyota from January 2006 to August 2009, and not one involved sticking pedals.

McDonald also stressed that the number of acceleration complaints about Toyota is not "particularly different" from those received regarding other manufacturers.

When Transport Canada receives a complaint, he said, it doesn't necessarily mean a defect exists, but could simply involve driver error.

In reply to a query from Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal (Newton-North Delta) about adequate staffing to ensure public safety, McDonald said Transport Canada's 10 vehicle investigators are sufficient to deal with 1,200 complaints a year and 29 million autos on the road.

"We feel, based on the risk in the system, that has been adequate to date to deal with that," he said.

"Should additional resources be required, there are mechanisms for us to follow through to seek those resources," McDonald said.

Auto safety recalls in Canada jumped 70 per cent to almost 1.9 million last year. Industry watchers expect the number to increase because of the growing complexity of vehicles.

Meanwhile, NDP MP Brian Masse (Windsor West) chided the department for "applauding" Toyota in a government news release when the company announced the floor-mat campaign in November.

"That's a very significant statement from supposedly the police for the consumers and public safety," he said.

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