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opinion B A C K PA GE BY EZRA LEVANT Idle summer thoughts question: How can they lower the city's quality of life, while increasing spending? In a 24-13 vote, Toronto's city council found a way: by banning idling by any vehicles for more than a minute, including city buses taking passengers on and off. The old Toronto law was foolish W enough: it banned idling for longer than three minutes. But it had exemptions such as a provision allowing cars to run when the temperature in the car was colder than five or hotter than 27 degrees. How thoughtful the old city hall was to infants, the sick, and the elderly. The new city hall scrapped that exemption, saying it was too hard for police to check the temperature inside the car. So the law isn't about what's right or wrong. It's about what's easiest for the police. Another exemption was scrapped: now buses that take more than 60 seconds to load or unload passengers must turn off their engines. If that means a bus full of children must do without heat in the winter, so be it. We have a planet to save, people, and this is the best idea they could come up with in Canada's best city. "The passengers are all wearing winter cloth- ing," said Toronto Coun. Howard Moscoe. "I know people get a little cold . . . but they are dressed for winter." Gentle reader, when was the last time you think Moscoe or any of his other anti-idling allies actually rode the bus when it's -30 C? Without a doubt, buses will be the ripest targets for enforcement. One can imagine an underworked police officer — Toronto's crime having been long since eradicated — simply following a city bus, tracing its route, stopwatch in hand. If the bus takes 61 seconds to load a passenger — say, someone in crutches — the cop will issue a ticket. And one could imagine another cop following behind the first one, ticketing him for idling as he stops the first bus. (You don't really think a police officer would sit in a cold car while writing up a ticket in winter, do you?) The whole idea is Kafkaesque, which surely only increased its appeal to Toronto's sober-minded statesmen. The Toronto Transit Commission meekly points out that turning off a bus engine without letting its diesel turbo- charger cool down for three minutes is reckless and could damage the tur- bocharger, which runs about $8,000 to replace. Even if it doesn't break, a fast shutdown burns oil, emitting pollution immediately. All this in the name of reducing pollution. Or making it easier for police to issue a ticket — whatever. And then there's the obvious: forcing buses to turn off their engines at every stop will cause delays on the road not just for the buses, but for other vehicles stuck behind them. How much more idling will happen from the thousands of cars ith no garbage strike and the G20 lockdown over, the top minds in Toronto gathered to answer this stuck behind the herky-jerky stop-and- start buses? It's hard to watch this debate with- out thinking that Toronto's city council really doesn't know a lot about anything, other than talking and spending money. They don't know how to actually do things, to actually fix problems. It's like the difference between book smarts and street smarts; the difference between a Harvard law grad who can quote obscure philosophers and a Texas oilman who spoke funny but actually made decisions. Not all problems can be solved by giving beautiful speeches off a TelePrompTer, or passing token idling laws. Oh, I'm not just picking on Toronto. Ottawa has a five-minute idling law, but it still exempts buses, livestock, and cement trucks. Vancouver has a three-minute limit. It exempts city hall-sponsored parades. If Vancouver politicians really wanted to end idling, they'd end their ideological opposition to building freeways within that burgeoning city, and twin some of its many overcrowded bridges. Driving throughout B.C.'s Lower Mainland is a constant series of idling waits: waiting at the border; waiting for the ferry; waiting at a bridge. All of which, not coinciden- tally, are government-caused delays. But I am being too pessimistic and critical. One ought to admire the ingenu- ity of city halls across Canada for turning a growing resource — government-creat- ed traffic jams — into a tax base. They've finally managed to find a growth industry for which they can justly take credit. Ezra Levant is a Calgary lawyer and author. He can be reached at ezra@ ezralevant.com McKellar. The first choice for structured settlements. No controversy. The McKellar Structured Settlement™ 50 A UGUST 2010 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com Untitled-3 1 4/14/10 1:00:50 PM SCOTT PAGE