Last winter, Tara Harper had good reason to think she was buying a safe vehicle. The used SUV had recently passed a safety inspection at a Winnipeg Canadian Tire.
But when it broke down just 20 minutes after she handed over $5,000 to the private seller in early February — the 20-year-old college student found herself with a vehicle too dangerous to drive and no recourse.
“My car just suddenly broke down in the middle of a turning lane,” said Harper, who worked minimum wage jobs for more than a year to afford the 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe. “I was really, really furious. It was my first car.”
In a tight market, Harper first tried to buy a used car from a dealership; when that didn’t work she and her dad turned to Kijiji. (Photo courtesy Paul Skirzyk)
The seller fixed the engine problem, but it made Harper question how safe the vehicle really was despite what Canadian Tire said.
So in early March, she brought the vehicle to Todd Holmes, a certified mechanic and a family friend.
“As soon as he put it on the hoist, he told us he was going to stop right there because it was an instant fail. We shouldn’t drive it,” said Harper’s dad, Paul Skirzyk.
The frame was corroded, Holmes said. His finding was later confirmed by Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) during a third inspection on March 30 — which also found 10 more safety issues.
“It could be very catastrophic,” Holmes told Go Public. “You have a frame that disintegrates during an accident, it could cost someone their lives.”
Red Seal mechanic Todd Holmes questions how any garage could have determined the Hyundai was roadsafe. (Travis Golby/CBC)
Automobile consumer protection expert George Iny says provincially mandated vehicle safety inspection systems can leave consumers with a false sense of security, and drivers are being “lulled” into thinking that those inspections guarantee the vehicles being purchased are safe.
“If you knew you’re buying at your own risk, then you wouldn’t have the illusion that the government is covering your back … buying the illusion of protection can be worse than no protection,” said Iny, who heads the Automobile Protection Association (APA), a non-profit that advocates for vehicle safety.
According to Iny, some provincial safety standards inspection systems lack oversight and don’t include key parts of the vehicle. Most complaints to the APA come from Ontario, he says.
Canadian Tire reimbursed cost of vehicle
Harper and her family fought for compensation for more than three months. They say the seller blamed Canadian Tire for failing to catch the problems, MPI wouldn’t help and a manager at the Canadian Tire location said it wasn’t the company’s problem.
“He said once it leaves his shop, he’s no longer responsible. So what is the point of the safety [inspection] if the moment it comes out of your garage, the safety is null and void?” asked Skirzyk.
Canadian Tire said her used vehicle was safe. It had big problems | Go Public
Featured VideoCanadian Tire told a Winnipeg student the used SUV she was about to buy was safe to drive — but she quickly learned it had major problems.
Go Public contacted Winnipeg’s Polo Park Canadian Tire franchise and the company’s head office. They then reimbursed Harper what she paid for the vehicle, calling it a “goodwill gesture,” according to an email from the company’s head office.
The company told Go Public that all “protocols were followed” by the location that did the initial inspection and that the authorized mechanic “believed that the vehicle met the requirements” to be granted a Certificate of Inspection, indicating it was safe to drive.
Canadian Tire said the damage to the frame could have happened when the engine was replaced.
“We do not know if other modifications were made to the vehicle by the previous owner and as such, cannot comment on the vehicle’s condition after the … inspection was completed at Canadian Tire,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email to Go Public.
Holmes says that’s not possible, since the damage was caused by corrosion, which would take more than the two months that passed between inspections.
The Canadian Tire Polo Park location in Winnipeg assured Tara Harper the vehicle she was about to buy was roadworthy — but it wasn’t, according to an independent mechanic who re-inspected the vehicle. (Travis Golby/CBC)
After Go Public questioned MPI about Harper’s situation, the public insurer suspended Canadian Tire’s Polo Park location from doing inspections for the provincial program for 12 months on Aug. 10.
In an email to CBC News, MPI said the location’s permit was suspended “for failing to act with honesty and integrity, and for issuing inaccurate or incomplete inspections.”
Manitoba issued 54 suspensions in 5 years
Go Public asked the provinces how many times they’ve sanctioned garages for botching inspections over the past five years.
Most didn’t respond or said they don’t track that information. Manitoba posts the information online, indicating it has issued 54 suspensions to safety inspection stations and individual mechanics over that period of time.
The Ontario Ministry of Transportation would not provide the numbers on request.
P.E.I., which is the only province that requires vehicle safety inspections every year even with no change in ownership, says it has issued 22 warnings to garages and 21 warnings to individual mechanics.
The province says 16 garages and 41 mechanics were suspended from doing inspections.
Quebec’s Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) says it has banned 11 garages and temporarily suspended 10 from doing the safety inspections over the past five years.
Todd Holmes took this photo of the damaged frame on Harper’s Hyundai Santa Fe when he inspected the vehicle in March. (Submitted by Todd Holmes)
Engine, transmission not ‘safety components’: province
Iny says the vehicle’s frame — the main issue with Harper’s SUV — should have been covered in any safety inspection, but other important parts of the vehicle are not.
He said engines are generally not inspected unless a warning light is on — but they’re easy to turn off if you have a shady seller.
Another example: he says that often the transmission is not inspected unless there are obvious leaks.
“You’re just protecting businesses when you have a bad inspection system,” he said. “You’re not actually protecting the customer.”
Iny says car buyers shouldn’t rely on provincially required safety inspections. Instead, they should have vehicles assessed by an independent mechanic to ensure they’re safe.
“Spend a little extra money and have a vehicle checked before you buy it,” he said.
George Iny from the Automobile Protection Association says some provincial safety inspections leave consumers with a false sense of security. (Louis-Marie Philidor/CBC)
MPI says the province’s inspection program “focuses on ensuring that vehicles meet minimum safety standards” like functioning brakes, good tires, headlights and taillights.
It says engines and transmissions aren’t included in inspections because they aren’t “considered safety components of a vehicle,” which is the case in many provinces.
It says safety components are outlined in provincial regulation. Like Iny, MPI suggests that in addition to the provincial safety inspections, buyers should have vehicles inspected by a trusted mechanic before purchase.
Private sales bring added risk: expert
Harper also wonders what the seller knew about the car. Go Public reached out to him repeatedly, but didn’t hear back.
While used car buyers may get a better price through a private sale, according to Iny, it is more risky than going through a dealership.
Dealers are bound to follow safety inspection and consumer protection laws, as well as disclosure rules on vehicle pricing and accident, repair and registration history.
Unlike private sales, if a customer feels cheated, they can ask for help — and sometimes get compensation — from the provincial dealer authority.
Tara Harper, left, and her dad, Paul Skirzyk, fought for months to get compensation after they say a botched safety inspection left Harper with a car she can’t drive. (Travis Golby/CBC)
Harper and her dad tried to buy from a dealership, but in a tight used car market they couldn’t find what they needed and turned to Kijiji.
Her family says that given the cost of repairing just the frame is about $4,000, they plan to tow the vehicle to a junkyard soon.
They say the experience has changed Harper’s views on owning a vehicle and left them with no trust in provincial safety inspections.
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VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
