BILL NO. 169
(as introduced)
2nd Session, 60th General Assembly
Nova Scotia
57 Elizabeth II, 2008
Environment Act
(amended)
The Honourable Darrell Dexter
Cole Harbour
First Reading: May 13, 2008
Second Reading:
Third Reading:
Explanatory Note
This Bill amends the Environment Act to require that companies that manufacture or import motor vehicles for sale in Nova Scotia must provide Nova Scotian motor vehicle owners and repair facilities the service and training information and make available to them the diagnostic tools and capabilities necessary to service, diagnose and repair those motor vehicles.
An Act to Amend Chapter 1
of the Acts of 1994-95,
the Environment Act
WHEREAS vehicle manufacturers are restricting access to the software, training and tools needed to maintain and repair new vehicles;
AND WHEREAS this is making it more difficult for independent repair facilities to service new vehicles and more difficult for consumers, especially in our rural communities, to access competitively-priced vehicle maintenance and repair services;
AND WHEREAS properly maintained and repaired vehicles emit fewer air pollutants and greenhouse gases into the environment;
THEREFORE be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:
1 Chapter 1 of the Acts of 1994-95, the Environment Act, is amended by adding immediately after Section 111 the following Section:
(a) "motor vehicle" has the same meaning as in the Motor Vehicle Act;
(b) "motor vehicle owner" means any person who owns, leases, or otherwise has the legal right to use and possess a motor vehicle, and includes an agent of that person;
(c) "repair facility" means a facility operated by a person engaged in the repair, diagnosis or servicing of motor vehicles or motor vehicle engines and includes a business from which such a facility normally purchases tools used to diagnose problems with motor vehicles or motor vehicle engines.
(2) This Section applies in respect of motor vehicles manufactured after the 1994 model year.
(3) In order to facilitate compliance with the goals set out in Section 2, every person that manufactures a motor vehicle for sale in the Province or that imports a motor vehicle into Canada for sale in the Province shall
(a) provide motor vehicle owners and repair facilities with unrestricted access, in a standard format via the Internet, to all the service and training information of the manufacturer relating to the motor vehicle, including information necessary to activate the controls of that motor vehicle; and
(b) on the request of a motor vehicle owner or a repair facility, promptly make available to the motor vehicle owner or the repair facility, as the case may be, through reasonable business means, all the diagnostic tools and capabilities necessary to diagnose, service and repair the motor vehicle.
(4) For greater certainty, a person referred to in subsection (3) shall provide motor vehicle owners and independent repair facilities the same information, and make available to them the same tools and capabilities, that it provides or makes available, as the case may be, to franchised dealerships and do so at the same time that they are provided or made available to those dealerships.
(5) Nothing in this Section requires the disclosure of trade secrets or the public disclosure of any information related exclusively to the design and manufacture of motor vehicle parts.
2 Subsection 112(1) of Chapter 1 is amended by adding immediately after clause (e) the following clauses:
(eb) the fees that may be charged by persons for providing the information and making available the tools and capabilities referred to in paragraph subsections 111A(3) and (4);
3 The Governor in Council shall, within one hundred eighty days after the coming into force of this Act, make regulations for carrying into effect the purposes of Section 111A.
This page and its contents published by the Office of the Legislative Counsel, Nova Scotia House of Assembly, and © 2008 Crown in right of Nova Scotia. Created May 13, 2008. Send comments to legc.office@novascotia.ca.
