OTTAWA, Ont. — Fiscal incentives may be the way to ease the dramatic burden of introducing cleaner truck engines and lead to fleets cleaning up their acts sooner.

This is the message coming from the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) head David Bradley to the House of Commons’ Committee on Finance. New federal rules announced last month by Environment minister David Anderson mandate the use of cleaner diesel truck engines starting this fall — mirroring U.S. regulations in place since manufacturers signed the now infamous 1998 consent decree.

“With the federal government about to introduce new regulations that will reduce smog-causing truck emissions by a staggering 90 per cent, CTA thinks the time is ripe for incentives to partially offset the higher cost of the new engines and encourage fleet owners to purchase this new equipment sooner,” says Bradley.

The new federal regulations on diesel fuel and heavy truck engines have received the backing of CTA even though they will mean more expensive equipment and higher operating costs. As a result, some fleets have been “pre-buying” current models while others have indicated they plan to slow the turnover of their existing fleet.

“It is in everyone’s interest to ease barriers to the introduction of the latest engine technology,” says Bradley.

“Given that fleet owners will see significant cost increases as a direct consequence of new government regulations, CTA believes it is entirely reasonable that a fiscal incentive, such as accelerated capital cost allowance be introduced to attenuate the impact.”