My question could be directed to any of the ministers with services directly to the public, but I'm going to focus them on the Minister of Transportation, given that my Member’s statement made specific reference to them.
I understand the value of policies and procedures. I understand why we have certain opening times such as 9 a.m. But I would suggest, in situations where weather is extreme, that it might be reasonable to open the doors and allow the people into the lobby. Policies are not written that way, and they do not allow that.
I'd like to encourage the Minister of Transportation to review the policies on when doors are opened, to ensure that people aren't standing outside in the bitter cold.
Have a heart
Mr. Speaker, I want to assure Members of this House, specifically Mr. Abernethy, that the department does have a heart. The department is working on the schedule.
I want to thank the Member for bringing this issue to my attention. I will be reviewing this issue with my staff and ensuring that when there’s specific issues such as cold weather, we have a provision there to allow people to come into our office a little earlier than the scheduled time we had posted for the public.
In my Member’s statement I also talked about our lovely drivers’ licences, the ones with the nice little holograms on them. To get those, you need to go in with a picture ID as well as proof that you live in the Northwest Territories, often a power bill. Once you get that card, you would think that would be a valid piece of ID, which suggests you wouldn’t need to necessarily bring in a different form of valid ID when you come back again.
In the situation I described, the person went forward with that nice piece of ID, took it forward. They were told, by policy: “Not acceptable. We need you to bring in another form of picture ID and the same power bill that you brought in three months prior when you got your driver’s licence the first time.”
Once again, I’d like the Minister to commit to reviewing their policies to ensure that those lovely IDs that we spent so much money on creating, buying and delivering to our public would be useful as official ID within the government when people return with those same drivers’ licences.
Mr. Speaker, again I thank the Member for bringing the constituent’s concerns to my attention. I would look at the policies and reasons and be willing to work with the Member on this specific issue in terms of the new general identification cards and the policy that we have in place. I would be happy to work with the Member on this issue.
