Over 6.5 Million Vehicles on Canadian Roads Deemed ‘Unsafe’: Transport Department

Vehicles drive on Highway 401 westbound in Kingston, Ont., on Jan. 11, 2019. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)

Over 6.5 million cars currently being driven on Canadian roads—representing about one-fifth of all registered vehicles across the country—have been deemed “unsafe” because of unresolved safety recalls, says the Department of Transport.

The department wrote in a recent “Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement” that most owners of these vehicles are unaware of the safety risks they pose, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“It is estimated up to one in five vehicles in use on Canada’s roads has an unresolved safety recall,” the department wrote in the statement released on June 17.

“Based on the 33.3 million registered vehicles in 2019 this means that approximately 6.6 million unsafe vehicles are still circulating on Canadian roads, potentially endangering not only the occupants but also other road users.”

The federal Motor Vehicle Safety Act requires automakers to notify all of their car dealers and buyers of any relevant safety recalls. Despite the mandatory notices, the Transport Department said that many recalls “still go unresolved.”

“Older vehicles are more likely to have unresolved recalls,” it wrote. “Several reasons could account for this including a change of address that is not updated in a company’s database or the fact older vehicles with expired warranties are less likely to see regular servicing.”

The department also acknowledged that many car owners “may not be aware of how to access safety recall information affecting their vehicles or vehicle equipment.”

Motor Vehicle Safety Act

In 2018, Parliament passed Bill S-2, or “An Act To Amend The Motor Vehicle Safety Act,” which gave the Transport Department expanded powers to “order companies to correct a defect or non-compliance” in vehicle recalls or else face potential fines of up to $200,000 per day.

The Transport Department said last June that it will be introducing more amendments to the Motor Vehicle Safety Act in the future, but did not outline any timelines for doing so.

The department said the changes would give it the data necessary to “modernize, identify and analywe possible vehicle and equipment safety defects, and how recalls are issued,” and it would also require automakers to “collect, maintain, and share specific automotive information” with the federal government.

The department further said that it plans on improving the Canadian public’s access to automakers’ recall information by requiring companies to post the relevant information online and provide a “recall search tool.”

“This would help the public to check if their vehicle is affected by a recall,” the Transport Department wrote in a June 2022 backgrounder titled “Updating regulations to modernize and strengthen motor vehicle safety for Canadians.”