LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

Mr. Jerry J. Ouellette (Oshawa): It may come as a surprise to some but just recently at the Los Angeles auto show the General Motors Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid was awarded the “2008 green car of the year”.

The new Tahoe hybrid, a full-sized SUV, has achieved considerable efficiency using gm’s new “two-mode” hybrid system and actually has the same city gas mileage rating as a Toyota Camry sedan.

This is important for Ontario’s auto industry where thousands of people are employed manufacturing larger vehicles, SUV’s, and pick-up trucks that are purchased in great numbers to meet our practical lifestyles. This achievement by GM ends the argument that efficiency and vehicle choice are incompatible.

This same technology will also be used in the new GM hybrid pick-up trucks to be built in Oshawa next year – the first plant in Canada to produce hybrid vehicles.

GM is also building the largest fleet of zero-emission vehicles with the Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell SUV’s at its Oshawa engineering centre. In addition, GM is working on bringing new plug-in hybrids and electric cars to production in the next couple of years.

GM Canada currently offers more vehicles with 40 mpg or better highway fuel consumption than any other automaker.

Finally, I would like to mention that I was especially pleased to be able to go green this Christmas. At the recent Oshawa Santa Claus parade I participated in an Oshawa-built Chevrolet E-85 impala which has the lowest green house gas emissions of any vehicle sold in Canada when running on E-85 ethanol.

Congratulations to general motors for developing technologies to help clean up our environment.