Canada to review auto emissions regulations

OTTAWA — Canada will review the joint vehicle emissions standards it has with the United States before it decides what to do about the U.S.’s plan to weaken those standards in the coming years.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna will unveil a discussion paper as early as Tuesday to kick-start that review, just days after the White House announced it is going to cancel the required annual increases in emissions standards after 2021.

Canada and the U.S. have been aligned on vehicle emissions for more than two decades. Unless Canada scraps the existing regulations and writes its own, which could take at least two years, this country will automatically follow the American plan.

That plan, agreed to in 2012 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama, was to compel automakers to make vehicles more fuel efficient each model year between 2017 and 2025. President Donald Trump, however, is now going to freeze the standards as of 2021.

A spokesperson for McKenna said the review was planned when the regulations were adopted, not as a result of the Trump move last week. Caroline Theriault said Canada will look at both environmental and economic impacts in that review and complete it before any decisions are made on how to proceed.

Canadian automakers don’t want Ottawa to make any final decisions on regulations here until it’s clear what will happen in the United States. At least 19 state attorneys plan to sue the U.S. government over the rollbacks.