Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up with my statement and ask some questions of the Minister of Transportation. I realize the situation I mentioned in my statement may have been an anomaly. It may have been just that one day. I do have some major concerns with the fact that a callback will not be made for two days.
I’d like to first ask the Minister whether or not there is a policy with regard to voicemail and callbacks and whether or not there are guidelines for employees in terms of when they should return calls for service.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for bringing this concern to my attention. The issue with the 48-hour waiting period for getting a callback, that’s news to me. It is certainly something that I take seriously, and I’ll certainly follow up with the department on whether or not that is the case each and every day. Forty-eight hours is a long period of time for somebody to wait for a callback, so we’ll certainly take a look at that practice.
I want to thank the Minister for his commitment. I’m glad that he agrees with me that 48 hours is too long for a call.
In looking into it, I guess I’d like to know from the Minister – certainly this was a situation here in Yellowknife but it could apply to other offices throughout the territory – will he ensure that in looking at the situation, he doesn’t just look at one office but that he looks at all offices under his jurisdiction as the Transportation Minister.
In the last sitting of the House, other Members had concerns about wait times at the department of motor vehicles, and we are looking to migrate a lot of those services on-line. We are continuing that work and I think we are going to end up having the majority of services available on-line for residents in the Northwest Territories, which will certainly enhance the service and get people the information they want in more of a timely fashion, and transactions can take place on-line. That’s what we’re trying to work toward.
Certainly, we’ve made some major improvements already and we continue to work toward those improvements. Again, the issue the Member brings up is a good one and we will look into that.
Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that this is going to be a fairly broad investigation into offices, but the other point that I mentioned in my statement was how difficult it is to talk to an actual real, live body, and that’s something which we struggle with, I think, as a society.
I’d like to know from the Minister, one thing is to look at the policy of a callback within two days, but the other thing is, can the Minister do something about the Yellowknife office in particular, to ensure that a phone call really does get answered as opposed to it automatically going to voicemail.
I agree with the Member on this. Again, it’s the first I’ve heard of it. I will ask the department about it. It’s a practice that, if it is taking 48 hours, that’s not acceptable. We need to be getting back to people much sooner than 48 hours. She has my commitment that I will follow this up immediately with the department.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
