Mr Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North): Ladies and gentlemen of this Legislature, it's true the Liberals have floated yet another trial balloon. Why have they done this? Because the new McGuinty government wants you and all Ontarians to forget about the Sorbara scandal.

The new McGuinty government must have been up in the wee hours of the morning inflating this latest trial balloon with lots of hot air, because the first any of us heard of it was early this morning. It certainly wasn't in the Liberal election platform as one of McGuinty's dozens and dozens of promises. This time, the Liberals are talking about phasing out over four years the Drive Clean emissions testing program for all cars, vans and SUVs.

I want to see Minister Dombrowsky's exit strategy for this program. There are hundreds of garages that have put in about $100,000 each for equipment and training to be certified as Drive Clean facilities. I want to know if and how they will be compensated for this significant investment.

Secondly, as part of the same trial balloon, the environment minister also announced that tougher standards would be applied to emissions testing for diesel trucks and buses. Guess what, Minister? You already announced this in a press release dated December 21, 2003.

As a member of the opposition, I must question the motive and timing behind the Drive Clean announcement. Why would a minister who seems so concerned about clean water not be concerned about clean air, especially since 60% of smog is caused by emissions? Is this the same government that promised to eliminate coal-fired hydro generation by 2007? I think finance minister Greg Sorbara might have the answer to this very important question.