Ottawa considers criminal crackdown on Toyota

OTTAWA–Transport Minister John Baird says his department is considering whether Toyota should face criminal charges after MPs accused the auto giant of dragging its feet in responding to potentially serious problems with its cars.

The Commons transport committee heard Tuesday that the Japanese carmaker was working on a fix for a sticky gas pedal before it warned motorists or Transport Canada about the possible defect that could cause vehicles to unintentionally accelerate.

Baird later said department officials would review testimony from the hearing, particularly in light of a section of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act that deals with the reporting of auto defects, and "make determinations accordingly."

Baird said his department will investigate Toyota, adding that, as a minister, "I can't direct the department to conduct a criminal investigation and lay criminal charges."

But he added, "If we have to raise the bar and make the law tougher with respect to disclosure, that's something we're prepared to do."

Politicians of all stripes took Toyota executives to task during Tuesday's bruising parliamentary hearing for not alerting motorists sooner about potential problems.

Conservative MP Jeff Watson (Essex) scolded Toyota managers for not notifying Transport Canada of a problem with gas pedals when it met with agency officials on Nov. 25, 2009 on another matter, whether floor mats were affecting the accelerator.

"You've got a serious safety problem, you're already talking to your supplier about redesigning a faulty gas pedal and no one told Transport Canada ... until after a recall was issued," Watson said.

"This was all occurring but you were telling nobody about it," he said, adding later that Toyota's handling of the situation "leaves a very bad impression that they weren't very forthcoming about what perhaps the real issue was."

Toyota executives were fuzzy in their recall of the timeline but didn't dispute Watson's assertions that discussions had already begun with the company's parts supplier about modifying the pedal prior to issuing a Jan. 21 notice of recall for 270,000 vehicles in Canada. Overall, Toyota has recalled more than 8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles around the world.

Stephen Beatty, managing director of Toyota Canada, defended the handling of the issue, saying the company got its first complaint about a sticky pedal in late October and that it took time to understand the problem.

"At the time, we didn't know what it was," Beatty said. Between late October and Jan. 21, he said the company got five complaints.

"That led us to the conclusion, based on our engineering studies that there was a problem. We issued a recall," he said.

He said investigations showed that in "rare" instances, a combination of wear and condensation could make the pedal harder to press, slower to return to the idle position or cause it to stick in a partially depressed position.

The recall involves modifications to the accelerator pedal by inserting a "Chiclet-sized" steel bar to eliminate any sticking that could cause crashes.

But to reassure drivers, he said the company is installing a "brake override" on all models, which reduces engine speed to near idle when the brake pedal is applied while the accelerator pedal is depressed.

Eyebrows were raised when it was revealed that once a problem has been identified, it has to be sent to Japan for engineering review.

"Why would you go to Japan without turning to Transport Canada when you knew there was a problem ... that put the safety of people at risk," said Bloc Québécois MP Roger Gaudet (Montcalm).

Liberal MP Marc Garneau, an engineer and former astronaut, said a string of complaints to government regulators dating back to 2004 should have set off alarm bells.

"Those statistics seem to paint a picture of a problem or problems," said Garneau (Westmont-Ville Marie). "It suggests that recalls that should have occurred were not occurring."

 

Toyota executives struck a conciliatory note as they began their presentation, expressing regret for the "anxiety and inconvenience" suffered by owners of Toyota vehicles.

"Nothing is more important to Toyota than the safety and reliability" of its vehicles, said Yoshi Inaba, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America.

Liberal Joe Volpe (Eglinton-Lawrence) told reporters that Transport Canada and Toyota were playing the blame game. "Transport Canada and the minister knew about all of these defects quite some time ago," he said. "The government has been derelict in applying what few measures they have."

NDP MP Brian Masse (Windsor-West) said Canadians should be upset that Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda has not apologized for the safety issues as he did to Americans and the Chinese.

"I think Mr. Toyoda should have really come to Canada to apologize" given that Canada is a large buyer of Toyota products and "the fact they have plants in Ontario," Masse said.

Toyota executives also called on Ottawa to pump more money into Transport Canada for troubleshooting of possible auto defects.

The executives recommended the federal government increase the department's staff, technological equipment and financial resources so it could help identify problems and find better solutions quicker.

It would also allay consumer fears of problems that don't exist, Beatty in an interview after the hearing.

Toyota's call for more aid comes after Transport Canada officials revealed last week that it employed 10 investigators to handle about 1,200 complaints annually and oversee 29 million autos on the road. A department head said the level is adequate "based on the risk in the system."

But Beatty said autos are becoming more complex and leading to an increasing number of complaints and safety concerns from drivers when they think something is wrong. Additional resources for Transport Canada would help find the root causes, if any, and speed up recalls, he noted.

With files from Tony Van Alphen

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