P.E.I. reviewing annual inspections

Vehicle owners in Prince Edward Island may soon have to get vehicle inspections every two years instead of one.

Reports indicate that the provincial government is considering changing the frequency requirement of motor vehicle inspections.

“I think the other thing we have to look at is insurance rates” and any impact MVI frequency would have on them, said provincial transportation minister Ernie Hudson, according to the CBC.

The push seems to have come after Green Party MLA Peter Bevan-Baker asked the government why safety inspections are done annually. He suggested the province consider the move to ease the financial burden on vehicle owners.

Inspections are done every two years in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Other provinces only require inspections when vehicles are sold from one owner to another.

“A car that passes inspection with no issues this year, there can be many issues that go wrong within a year: brake work, bodywork, many things,” Ernie Stanley, who manages Coast Tire in Charlottetown, told the CBC.

Doug Burke, a service advisor at Wendell Taylor’s Garage, told the CBC that an MVI in the province Island costs $30.

“[We] don’t really make money on MVIs from what I am aware,” he said. “I’m safety first. You have to make sure it is safe whether it is one-year-old, 10-years-old.”

The review is expected to be done by mid-December.