BC government is at it again

[2rivers]

Wayne, can you tell us what is on the cards? Either way I'll take some and email you direct.
Thanks,
JOhnny

 

[83bj60]

Every RHD owners should have access to a print off and sign/send letter
Johnny

I was thinking about something of the sort but way better innthe sense that a template could be customised so that each letter would be unique but composing it could be very easy, for much greater impact with the authorities

How about that for effective lobbying with the least amount of energy expenditure! Call it a form running on Diesel

Anyone has a letter already available for download? The more there are the easier it would be for each an every one to 'cut and paste' into one's own custom letter.

Just thinking at the poor types such as myself who hate typing!!!

Chris

 

[crushers]

i think a template would be a good idea but also individuality is important...
please send me your idea(s) since i am poor with words..

 

[83bj60]

Hello everyone

I'm new here. I have read every post of this thread and i find the discution very interesting, informative, constructive and intelligent. So i decided to sign up to participate and to share what i know.

First some word about me. I'm from the province of Quebec. I'm a little on the buiness of importation of cars as i give my help (more as a habby for my love in JDM and world cars not sale in NA than for money purpose) to a compagny named JDM Quebec that offert service to help people to locate in Japan the car they want and assiste them in the process to import it privately and pass the provincial inspection of the SAAQ over here (its the ICBC from Quebec). That's them who helped me to import my Skyline GT-R.

I'm worrying to death about this possible law change on importation of car since the time of first rumeur about it had come out, that's near a year ago. I have done (and continue to do) research on the net for this to know more about the laws and legislations in Canada and in other country in the world of the grey import of car to understand the whole situation.

I have already thought since months about most of the ideals that have been discuted on this thread, like the ideal of a web site/forum for all the canadian owner of imported car, a online petition (i have already done some test for it with a script that use php database that i can show you later), a association for importer and dealer. I'm very happy to see that now i'm not alone to think that we need to take action.

First i want to point you to the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA): http://www.ccmta.ca Their mandate as cited on their website is:



A importer over here have take a membership at this organisation on the name of MFM International Inc. From what he have told, this is where a big part of the discutions goes between the provincial MOT and TC about the law change. I think that if there is one day a association of importer and dealer created, it should be a member of the CCMTA to have their voice hear in a good place and be part of the discution. The cost of the membership is 400$ a year.

That's it for now. More writing later...

-Mat

Cheers Mat, glad to see someone from my neck of the woods, qui plus est semble connaître MFM International!!! My HDJ81 was in fact imported here through MFM... And we talked about the issue you are describing back in November...

So feel free to PM me, it would be great if we could organise a meeting of all JDM owners in the area to discuss these issues together. So far it has seemed to me that JDM is basically all BC (with the exeption of Louis in Ottawa, it seems), glad to see it ain't so

Et à part ça, je suis parfaitement bilingue, c'est sûr qu'on pourra se comprendre

Chris

 

[83bj60]

i think a template would be a good idea but also individuality is important...
please send me your idea(s) since i am poor with words..

Some precisions: by template I mean basically a Word document that would have many sentences that one could edit to suit his / her particular situation, or opinion. A little like a form letter that would be sufficiently flexible to aloow good degrees of customisation so that someone such as yourself and myself would have less of a struggle to actually write to mean what you think! Like an assisted speech writing template if you will...

How many times have you (and me!) struggled and laboured on a document to make it say exactly what you mean? (as a matter of fact I have to do that frequently in the course of my work!) Such a letter could be built from cut and paste from individual persons' attempts until something clear, direct and powerful could be sent.

Remember, all these folks who write these laws are lawyers to whom nothing is simpler but to write, so we need something that will be eloquent and just as powerful to fight with, and God knows how difficult that is to do for hands-on, technical types like us!

Chris

(Yeah, I know, I'm still empty handed, but at least I offered some fresh ideas!)

Basically, why don't those who send letters make them available for download (execpt for their partyiculars, of course) to inspire those of us who have excellent reasons for doing so but for whom writing is not a joy, but a pain?

 

[crushers]

So far it has seemed to me that JDM is basically all BC
Chris

exscuse me?
the issue started in BC but it took Albertans to finally get the ball rolling

 

[83bj60]

How about a test to prove driving safety instead of a stupid blanket regulation?

On the forum of the montrealracing website, a importer have post a few months ago the reply from Transport Canada from a question he have ask to them. We learn some interesting stuffs. Its in french, i have gross translated with google the text for here.

http://forums.montrealracing.com/showthread.php?t=401940

Well, TR3CK, reading that thread gave me an ideas which would appear to solve many rpoblems: appease the legitimate concern for safety AND make it possible for those who want to keep the RHD to do so:

instead of a blanket law, why not make a driving test available whereby RHD drivers would be able to demonstrarte taht dricving on the RH side is just as safe as on the LH side!!!

that no one has thought about it bedfore baffles me. So much energy wasted argumenting, with no constructive proposals!

Such a test would make sure only safe drivers are on the road, and should be aplicable to ALL DRIVERS, RHD or LHD. This way the public dangers presently on the road (I'm thninking of those idiots who are simply incompetent drivers)would be taken off the road or limited to cars they can actually drive and special vehicle afficiaonados would be allowed using their exotic vehicles once they have proven they can actually drive them safely.

Such a regulation would IMO be just and would solve m\not only the perceived issues with RHD vehicles but also solve a lot of the existing problems with dangerous drivers!

Chris

 

[83bj60]

exscuse me?
the issue started in BC but it took Albertans to finally get the ball rolling

Whoa, cowboy! Don't get on you high horses! How many of us here are from the east? Hmm? I'm simply stating that fact... And the fact it is much more expensive to buy a JDM landcruiser in this province that the same in BC, that I know that for a fact!!!

And yes, I do recognize your efforts in that matter!!!

Chris

 

[crushers]

And yes, I do recognize your efforts in that matter!!!

Chris

we are all trying to get this to work....

 

[crushers]

message from the Skyline group

Hi Wayne,

I see that you have been dealing with this issue for quite a while.

The Skyline community, which makes its home at www.gtrcanada.com , is
as you are probably aware the biggest (certainly among the biggest)
single group of RHD import owners in Canada. Discussion has been
ongoing on regulatory developments but in the last couple of weeks
people have really taken an interest in the light of some new
developments and information.

I would like to ensure than all RHD owners work as one group to make
themselves heard and to share information, not as small groups here
and there which are easily suppressed.

Our "Legalese" section at
http://forums.gtrcanada.com/viewforum.php?f=2 is home to these
discussions and I would greatly appreciate the input of you and your
associates in these matters.

Best regards
Jason Elias
(s/n StraightSix)

(end copy)

okay, if you do a quick scroll through the site you will find many very level headed peeps wanting to do what is right.
we have the Safari group on side and now the skyline group on line, this is excellent.
i don't want to see berating of the skyline drivers on this thread, most of us have gone through our high horsepower days so keep those comments out of this thread.
if we want to beat the goverment at their own game we need to work together, this includes modifying our driving style to comply with the laws of the road. what i would like to point out to the younger (or not so young) high horsepower driver, let's keep the street racing to the track. if there are more accidents (and they can happen to anyone, including you) then the goverment gets the data they need to work against us. if you see someone blasting past you then take the action to talk to them, chances are you know who they are and they "might" listen. if you don't care about the car you are driving or the people that will suffer with your habits then ignore this plea. the door will shut.

it is the same with all of us that want to fight for what is right, lets make sure we have legal units and lets drive responsibly.

example:
i had a skyline blast past me and 3 other cars ahead of me on the 2 lane road (17th ave heading out to Chestemere), i was curious if he had any idea what he is screaming to the other drivers on the road. what is wrong with this manouver isn't the speed at which he was driving but the message he was sending out. the manouver was safe, no oncoming traffic was cut off, no cars had to move over to let the driver back in, other than the speed of the execution of the manouver there was nothing illegal. but the message was: i am fast and i like attention. in my mind i was picturing myself a cop and how i would have reacted. i can picture the cop pulling the driver over and adding one more statistic to the list. i could also picture the headlines if an accident happened.

it is no different than driving to edmonton and having NA LHD cars blast past you at excess of 140km/hr for 2 hours but the difference is the goverment is not trying to stop the LHD units, they are trying to stop the RHD units from being on the road. don't give them the statistics they need or want to accomplish their twisted agenda.

we all have very cool rides, be it a Skyline GTR a diesel Cruiser, Hilux, JDM-MR2 or a beat of a Safari. just owning these brings us attention. if you are a younger Skyline owner, you have nothing to prove to your buddies. you already have an extremely sought after production race car, you can drive the speed limit and have the same drool effect that going 240km/hr will have but you will get the attention without the negative effect. add to this the respect you will be earning and it is a win/win situation (for all of us).

want to race? do it legally and kick some NA steel's ass on the track...

 

[dweisger]

I got my first reply from my MP. He said he would look into the issue. I imagine its just lip service for now, but I will contact him again in a week or two to follow up.

The best thing we can all do is keep sending polite letters to these people to educate them on our side of the debate. So when the issue comes up for legislation we are represented.

DW

 

[crushers]

excellent DW...
if you don't mind, can you send me a copy direct to wayne@crushersrule.com as well as his reply? i would love to start a file of all the corespondence between JDM owners and their coverment officials so if need be i can bring this info up in battle form??
thank you for your efforts

 

[TR3CK]

i am waiting for the new "Import Vehicle Association of Canada" web site to be uploaded for the proper link

Wayne, because the website is for a true national association and our country is bilingual, i think the website must be both in english and french to reach more of canadians as possible and to give more weight to the seriousness of it. Me or someone else who speak french, can give help on the translation if you need to.

-Mat

 

[TR3CK]

Another Interesting read of UK rules on importing foreign vehicles from their Department for Transport: http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_roads/documents/page/dft_roads_506867-02.hcsp#P40_2806

There is some similarity between the legislation of Canada and UK for the registration of imported car for road use. Except for the fact that there is not a custom law that prohibit cars of a certain age to enter the country like in Canada. So people in UK can import any car in their country but to register it for use on the road it's another question.

Imported vehicules older than 10 years have to "pass the normal "MoT" roadworthiness test prior to licensing & registration" - this is a little like the OP provincal inspection in Canada that we have to pass in Canada for the registration for road use of a imported vehicule that have more than 15 years old.

Imported vehicules from country of the European Union that are less than 10 years can be register easily, since they share the same norms with UK. If needed some modification will have to be done for use on the LH traffic road. There is a similarity with here in Canada for vehicules less than 15 years old imported from the US that are on the RIV list of vehicles admissible.

Imported vehicules from other country than those in the European Union that are less than 10 years have to pass a Single Vehicle Approval (SVA) or Enhanced SVA. To pass it, they must have been modified to conform the ECE and UK standards and that can become a headhache. To help, some compagnies (like this one: www.modelreports.com) sell what's called a model reports for some car models (like newer than 10 years old Skyline imported from Japan in other), this give a guidelines of what is needed to modify on the car in order to pass the SVA. In Canada we don't have something like the SVA approach, it's mainly because we have like in US a norm about a frontal crash test. So like we know, there is no way to import a car less than 15 years old that's not on the RIV list.

-Mat

 

[TR3CK]

instead of a blanket law, why not make a driving test available whereby RHD drivers would be able to demonstrarte taht dricving on the RH side is just as safe as on the LH side!!!

Chris, it's a good ideal but this make me think why we would need it here while there is not such thing in others country as far as i know? Compared to others places in the world, the drivers in Canada are really that bad to need some sort of certification to drive a RHD?

-Mat

 

[crushers]

Wayne, because the website is for a true national association and our country is bilingual, i think the website must be both in english and french to reach more of canadians as possible and to give more weight to the seriousness of it. Me or someone else who speak french, can give help on the translation if you need to.

-Mat

Mat,
good point, once we get this new site set up i will send you the text to get is translated properly (unlike altavista which can be quite humorous at times).
thanks for the offer.
cheers

 

[crushers]

my view of the report posted earlier by Preiva:
http://www.luxuryimports.ca/faq/joinfight.php

 

[canucksafari]

Chris, it's a good ideal but this make me think why we would need it here while there is not such thing in others country as far as i know? Compared to others places in the world, the drivers in Canada are really that bad to need some sort of certification to drive a RHD?-Mat

I agree that a driving test is not a solution and would be descrimination. This idea was also posted on BC4X4.com. It really gets me that someone who only has driven a small car most of their life can, without any training and additional licencing, hop into the drivers seat of a 25 foot motor home with a 16 foot trailer in tow. There is no comparison between this and a RHD vehicle. Yet somehow, the driving position shifted to the right a few feet "could be" a danger?
I have not heard back from the BC Minister of Transportation regarding the letter I sent. Perhaps, I should focus on the federal cabinet and BC MPs.

As for a bilingual site, this is the only way to go if we want to be seen as a truely national force. The association will need both a contact in English Canada and French Canada (preferabley Quebec). The feds will then take the organization very seriously - even better if there is Quebec provincial government and Bloc support for our efforts. I could just imagine how this would play out in the House and with Inter Provincial Relations. Let's not forget, the revision of motor vehicle acts and the TC regulations are just one item on the national provincial harmonization agenda. Industries want to see the same rules in all provinces - especially with regards to transportation.

We don't have to be real big in numbers to ensure common sense prevails. We just have to be vocal and have a few of the right people on side. Does any body know someone who knows the key federal ministers personally? Are there any contacts with key business leaders throughout the country who have RHD vehicles?

John

 

[83bj60]

Wayne, because the website is for a true national association and our country is bilingual, i think the website must be both in english and french to reach more of canadians as possible and to give more weight to the seriousness of it. Me or someone else who speak french, can give help on the translation if you need to.

-Mat

You can count on my help as well

Chris

 

[83bj60]

Chris, it's a good ideal but this make me think why we would need it here while there is not such thing in others country as far as i know? Compared to others places in the world, the drivers in Canada are really that bad to need some sort of certification to drive a RHD?

-Mat

The best way to win a battle is to use your opponent's weapon against him, and such a proposal could not in all fairness be refused in a democracy.

Now I may be wrong but I strongly believe that it would prove once and for all that it's not the vehicle that is the problem, but the driver. End of argumentation, end of biased blanket law, end of problem.

I highly doubt, in our democracy, that such a challenge would be refused, in parliament as well as in a court of law.

Those biased goverment types have started the ball rolling, let's use this argument against them and let them prove their theory.

Let the lawyers on this board look at this and tell me and the general public that I'm wrong and that democracy is a travesty.

Chris