Under a plan being developed by provincial and regional agencies, mobile testing equipment will be rolled out by January to target heavy-duty trucks and other polluting vehicles.

The move is being welcomed by motorists, who have long been frustrated that cars and vans on the Lower Mainland must undergo AirCare tests while trucks and buses avoided similar testing.

"Because automobile owners are subject to the AirCare program, there should be some sort of balancing or a similar type of program to ensure that other vehicles using the road are in compliance and not excessively polluting," said Trace Acres, spokesman for the B.C. Automobile Association. "You're dutifully abiding by the law and then you see a truck driving down the road belching blue smoke and you sort of say, 'Where's the equity here?' "

While all the details have yet to be worked out, politicians want to resurrect a version of the AirCare On-Road Program, which operated on a limited basis between 1996 and last year.

TransLink, which is responsible for AirCare testing of cars and vans, started discussing the program with the province and eventually worked out a deal to share responsibility.

The new program will feature three mobile testing vans, with two of them working out of provincial weigh scales to target heavy trucks. TransLink will operate the other unit, which will be able to test everything from heavy to light trucks and even cars that are smoking badly.

Joyce Murray, Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection, acknowledged yesterday there's still work to be done but she's pleased with the progress.

"We look like we're on track to having a new solution and I'm delighted with that," Murray said.

The program was endorsed yesterday by the Greater Vancouver Regional District's planning and environment committee.

"January 2004 would be an achievable date but later than we would want," said Martin Lay of the TransLink subsidiary Pacific Vehicle Testing Technologies, which oversees the AirCare program on the Lower Mainland. "We really want to get this going," Lay said.

The regional district wants the B.C. government to implement a system of fines and regulations similar to those in Ontario, where trucks face the most stringent emissions standards in North America.

North Vancouver City Mayor Barbara Sharp, chairwoman of the regional district committee, said she fully supports measures to fight greenhouse gas emissions.

"That's like motherhood," she said.

The B.C. Trucking Association also welcomes the move.

"We are anticipating this program will be more effective and if it's paid for by the polluters, all the better," said association president Paul Landry.

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