Michael McLeod

We certainly can engage with the folks that provide the service in Fort Simpson to see what is required and to see what we have in terms of inventory that may be suitable for an expansion or to allow for the booster to be mounted on.

Right at this point we don’t have it in our budget to buy a tower. Having said that, I’m not sure we would invest in a tower that involves communications. I can certainly commit to the Member that I will have a discussion with my officials and we’ll maybe sit down with the Member and get whatever information he’s got to have that discussion with NorthwesTel or...

Mr. Speaker, I rise to inform Members that later today I will table a document titled GNWT Response to Standing Committee on Government Operations CR 1-16(6): Report on the Review of the Auditor General of the Northwest Territories Deh Cho Bridge Project – 2011.

The standing committee made seven recommendations in this review. I want to assure Members that the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) is acting on all of them. This is detailed in our written response to the standing committee. In brief, the government has finalized a P3 Policy for alternatively financed projects. The...

I think I already committed to doing that. I’ll say it again; we will follow up with the Member and gather the information that we think is required and relevant to the situation, and get back to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe that there have been any formal requests through our department to look at expanding the cell phone services. It’s not an area that we, as Transportation, would be responsible for. We worked, however, with other organizations such as the Aboriginal Sport Circle and other people who want to see that service expanded, even in the city of Yellowknife. They’ve come forward and accessed program dollars from, I believe, federal coffers and been able to put boosters and things of that nature so service is available at the airport.

I don’t believe we have had a...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Deh Cho Bridge Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act, be read for the third time.

Mr. Chairman, I believe there were a number of motions for amendment.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, also, to all the Members that made comments. This issue of distracted driving has certainly come forward as an emerging issue. When it was raised here several years ago there has been a lot of research done in here with distracted driving. We’ve had many organizations -- the NWT Association of Communities, we had the RCMP, people from SADD, the city -- come forward and bring some information that would support the need for new legislation. We also, of course, had many of the MLAs raise the issue and bring examples and also concerns by residents of the North...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chairman, on my left I have Mr. Russell Neudorf, deputy minister of the Department of Transportation, and on my right I have Ms. Kelly McLaughlin, legislative counsel with the Department of Justice.