Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today in follow-up to my Member’s statement yesterday on last week’s devastating highway crash north of Fort Providence. The names of the families were released yesterday, and our thoughts and prayers reach out to those families.
In my questioning to the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, my questions will not deal directly with the accident itself, as it is still under RCMP investigation. However, they will deal with the level of medical knowledge of our Department of Transportation, of our highway workers, and the protocols of our emergency dispatch and support.
My questions today are for the Minister of Transportation. Due to the fact that we do not have a community highway emergency response program in the NWT, could the Minister of Transportation explain to the House if our highway road maintenance or their supervisors have been trained in the basics of First Aid responder care? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that the Government of the Northwest Territories has highway emergency learning protocols in place, and these describe responsibilities, by region, as to who will respond to emergencies on our highways, and these protocols are developed in partnership with our Department of Transportation, MACA, the Department of Justice and also Health and Social Services. As to the exact level of training of, say, a grader operator, they would certainly, I think, have different training than our highway patrol officers would have. But I could certainly get back to the Member and the House on what exact training each of our front-line staff has. Thank you.
I appreciate the Minister’s response. Can the Minister of Transportation indicate what are the protocols for the Department of Transportation when our workers are faced with an accident on our highways? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, they would just follow the protocols that are in place. If they come across an accident scene, they’re to alert the authorities and monitor things. Again, if the Member wants specifics, I would be more than happy to get him specifics. It is different between a highway patrol officer… We have a number of front-line staff out on our highways. We have highway patrol officers and also equipment operators, so it’s much different. Thank you.
Can the Minister of Transportation indicate what are the capabilities of our highway ground fleet in terms of communication? Do we have the capabilities of full communication or through dispatch along all our highway systems? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as I am aware, our highway patrol officers are equipped with the best in communication equipment, and are able to communicate with other enforcement agencies in the territory and emergency response personnel in the territory.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The words of the Minister today are encouraging; however, we’ve heard a lot of generalities and I think there are lots of opportunities that we’ve heard today in terms of our training of our road fleet, possibly a review of our protocols with highway accidents when they first become a responder, and probably the needs to improved communication. Again, we’re hearing generalities. I think the Minister should endeavour to address this House and address the people in the Northwest Territories, but more specific. So I challenge the Minister if he’d like to provide that level of detail to this House and table it in the near future. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we certainly have protocols in place when it comes to emergencies on our highway system; however, we don’t have those types of protocols when it comes to whether or not air rescue is brought into play. That is an area that we will continue to work on with the other departments that I mentioned earlier – Health and Social Services, MACA, Department of Justice – on enacting some protocols when it comes to air rescue. But for highway rescue, we do have protocols in place. Again, I’d be more than happy to share those protocols with the Members. We will get that to them as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
