Registrar's Decision

Compliance > Registrar’s Decisions > Registrar’s Decision 17-06-002 17-07-003

Registrar’s Decision 17-06-002 17-07-003

File Number: 17-06-002; 17-07-003

In the matter of The Motor Dealer Act R.S.B.C. 1996 C.316

Complainant: Vehicle Sales Authority of BC

Licensee/Unlicensed person:

Pioneer Garage Limited dba Greenlight Auto Sales (#40420) and Pioneer Garage Limited dba Pioneer Pre-Owned (#40428)

Issues:

Pioneer Garage Ltd. dba Greenlight Auto Sales and Pioneer Garage Ltd. dba Pioneer Pre-owned applied for motor dealer registrations.
The Authority raised concerns with granting these registrations due to the past compliance history of Pioneer Garage Ltd. and current concerns with its ongoing compliance with the legislation. This includes an upcoming hearing for breaches of the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act and breaches of past Undertakings, along with another complaint that is at the investigation stage.
Pioneer Garage Ltd. stated the registrations should be granted and highlighted various factors in support of granting the two registrations such as:

Internal changes it has made to ensure compliance with the legislation,
The importance of granting these registrations for employees and prospective employees and for the community, and
The past compliance actions all had some mitigating factors.

Outcome:

Pioneer Garage Ltd.’s recent past compliance history does raise public interest concerns.
Pioneer Garage Ltd. has recently implemented internal changes to ensure compliance with the legislation. There is yet no evidence that those changes will ensure Pioneer’s future compliance.
Pioneer Garage Ltd. does have an upcoming hearing which may require the Registrar consider revoking Pioneer Garage Ltd.’s registration as a motor dealer. To grant registrations now only to revoke them in a few months’ time may unnecessarily expose consumers to risk.
The more appropriate approach to protect consumers is to deny registering Pioneer Garage Ltd. dba Greenlight Auto Sales and Pioneer Garage Ltd. dba Pioneer Pre-owned until after the upcoming hearing is concluded. After that hearing is concluded, the Registrar would consider reviewing the applications for registration of Pioneer Garage Ltd. dba Greenlight Auto Sales and Pioneer Garage Ltd. dba Pioneer Pre-owned. Whether registrations would be issued depends on the facts at the time of that later review.
This decision will allow more time to pass to see if the recent internal changes made by Pioneer Garage Ltd. are effective in keeping it compliant with the law, and to protect consumers.