Quebec is prepared to junk any clunkers that don't meet tough new emissions standards for vehicles.
Beginning two years from now, people who own cars built before 1995 will be required to undergo mandatory inspections. Those whose cars don't meet the standard will have to get their cars repaired, or else the cars will be destroyed.
The announcement was made by the Quebec delegation to a United Nations conference on climate change that wrapped up Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Quebec hopes its plan will help it achieve a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.
The crackdown will affect 400,000 car owners in the province. Quebec says the older cars are responsible for 50 per cent of the pollution that's generated on the province's roads.
Inspections
Under the proposal, cars that are found to be emitting heightened levels of pollution would be repaired or taken off the road.
Not every Quebecer can afford a new car and the government has not said if it will compensate drivers whose cars are junked.
Officials, however, are pointing to a $3 million incentive fund that offers free public transportation to drivers who give up their clunkers. Five-thousand cars have been yanked off the road under the incentive plan, says the province.
Skeptic
George Iny, head of the Automobile Protection Association, tells CTV's Paul Karwatsky that he doubts the clunker plan will have a major impact on emissions.
He says that Quebec had not taken into account what will happen if a driver whose old car is junked goes out and buys a new car to replace it.
"Nobody is calculating the energy burden of manufacturing an additional vehicle," Iny said on Friday.
"It would take about the equivalent energy of 40,000 to 50,000 kilometers of driving to make the replacement car."
What's more, Iny says most older cars are probably driven less than 10,000 kilometers per year on average.
Supporters
Environmental groups support Quebec's clunker plan, as do road safety groups who say that old cars cause a disproportionately high number of road accidents.
