A federal government website that highlights the negative health and environmental effects of idling your engine has revamped its message after meeting with a group representing drive-thru restaurants.

'It's gonna make it harder for every city politician to make the argument that we need to have restrictive legislation on idling.'— Ottawa Coun. Clive Doucet

The "Idle-Free Zone," a website managed by Natural Resources Canada's office of energy efficiency, was removed for review following a meeting with the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. A revised version was posted five months later, on July 22, that:

• Advises drivers to shut off their engines after 60 seconds of idling; the previous version advocated turning engines off after 10 seconds.
• Does not refer to 5,000 premature deaths annually in Canada linked to air pollution, as the previous version did, and no longer includes posters bearing images such as a girl choking and slogans such as "Idling is killing our environment."

The website says its purpose is to help communities and environmental groups stop engine idling.

Carol Buckley, director general of the office of energy efficiency, confirmed that the restaurant association met with Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn on Feb. 7.

According to Lunn's spokeswoman, Louise Girouard, no one from the office of energy efficiency attended the meeting. Girouard confirmed that an e-mail was sent from Lunn's office on Feb. 8 asking the site to be taken down.

Buckley said the site was temporarily removed because the office didn't want to leave any misleading information online while it was being revised.

"We wanted to make sure that the website reflected all of the latest data and information that was available about this topic," she said, adding that in the end the changes were "not really significant."

The change to the recommended amount of idling time was made because of access to new research taking into account the wear and tear on a car's battery and starter caused by shutting off and restarting the engine, she said. Previously, the site said such wear and tear was minimal.

The new site now also refers readers to Health Canada instead of detailing the health impacts of idling because Natural Resources felt that wasn't really their jurisdiction and they wanted to focus on the effects on climate change, Buckley added.

"I think the emphasis in the earlier text was a little strong. Today's vehicles are more efficient when it comes to smog emissions," she said.

Site 'lacks balance': restaurant group

Joyce Reynolds, executive vice-president for government affairs for the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said the group corresponded with a number of government officials at various levels about the website, which was used by many municipalities to develop their own anti-idling bylaws.

'What I would like to see is that Natural Resources Canada put the same amount of emphasis on these other driving behaviours that they do on idling.'— Joyce Reynolds, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association

"Our concern is that municipal decision-making must be based on facts and scientific evidence," she said. "And we were seeing some municipalities that were focusing on the health impacts of idling based on information that was incorrect and misleading."

The association argues Natural Resources Canada didn't put enough weight on pollution caused by a puff of contaminants produced when an engine is restarted after being shut down.

Reynolds said some of that misleading information on the "Idle-Free Zone" site has now been corrected, but the site still "lacks balance."

In particular, she said, it doesn't deal with other driving behaviours that cause greenhouse gas and pollution emissions, such as excessive speeding, rapid acceleration and poor vehicle maintenance.

"What I would like to see is that Natural Resources Canada put the same amount of emphasis on these other driving behaviours that they do on idling," Reynolds said.

With regards to idling, the changes to the site will have an impact on municipalities, Ottawa city Coun. Clive Doucet said.

"It's gonna make it harder for every city politician to make the argument that we need to have restrictive legislation on idling. It's not good news for cities anywhere," said Doucet, who pushed hard for an anti-idling bylaw in Ottawa.

A bylaw banning idling for more than three minutes in Ottawa went into effect on Jan. 1, 2008.

With the aim of reducing pollution from idling cars, a number of cities in Canada — including London, Ont., North Vancouver and Sarnia, Ont. — are thinking about making it tougher for restaurants to build new drive-thrus.

Gordon Taylor, an engineering consultant who has done air-quality studies for Natural Resources Canada, suggested that the restaurant association could be taking another approach to deal with criticism of drive-thrus.

"I think the restaurant association should have some kind of a pro-active campaign to say, 'Hey, if there's a big long lineup, consider walking in the door.' "