Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues, for allowing this to continue. Mr. Speaker, I would like to weigh in on this driver’s licence plate issue quickly, especially because it is such an important topic and it has been raised today in various perspectives.
Mr. Speaker, a number of my constituents are concerned about the $10 fee. To the Minister that may not be a big deal, but as I understand it, there are 18,000 passenger vehicles on the road today and that is just the passenger vehicles, mind you. Of course, people are now forced to pay the $10 fee. It shouldn’t be described as anything else because the option is either have your vehicle on the road or not have your vehicle on the road, so I think people made substantial investments. This can’t be really seen as anything but a cash grab.
I am just trying to understand. If I can compare playground investment in camp parks, we don’t raise camp fees. When we are forced to upgrade our health care cards recently to a modern one, we weren’t charged a fee there, and finally airport improvements, when we do those, we are not charged extra fees when we put an airport in. Why did the Minister feel that it was necessary to charge an additional fee of $10 regardless of how small it may appear to be? Why did the Minister feel that it is an important direction to start charging those types of fees when what truly is the responsibility of the government and we are already paying for it in our road licence fee that we do update every year? Thank you.
The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is always encouraging us to level down the jurisdictions and try to stay on par with what they do. The Auditor General has also indicated that our fees are too low, especially in the area of airport development and parking fees and things of that nature. We are also encouraged by our government to recover any new costs. The cost of $10 is what it cost to produce the new licence plate.
It’s probably by far lower than most jurisdictions. Other jurisdictions are charging quite a bit more, even for the personalized licence plates. Some jurisdictions are charging up to $50. Our fees are intended to recoup what it costs to produce the plates and we needed to change the plates to meet national standards in safety areas and reasons of that nature. So that’s what we’re doing.
Thank you. New Brunswick updated their plates and gave people the option if you wanted a new style plate you could pay the fee and take the new plate.
Mr. Speaker, a couple of years ago the government wisely listened to the ideas that came from this side of the House about upgrading drivers’ licences and they didn’t pass on an additional fee when they modernized the territorial driver’s licence. Mr. Speaker, this can’t be viewed as any more than nickeling and diming the average northern resident when the cost of living continues to be an issue.
Finally, if they needed the money and felt that the $80 fee was not substantial enough to cover the normal costs of registering your vehicle, why wasn’t that publicly debated and explained why the whole fee is inappropriate and they’re just going to add on a $10 extra fee to cover the licence plates? So, Mr. Speaker, I think the real question is, is the fee the problem, the whole registration fee, and why isn’t that fairly publicly debated by our Finance Minister who would bring it forward in the next type of budget? Why wasn’t it addressed as a package as opposed to let’s nickel and dime people one at a time? Thank you.
The Member raises the fee that New Brunswick is charging. They’re charging $25. If you want us to stay on par, I guess we could consider that, but at this point we’re looking at recouping what it costs to produce the licence plate. That is our requirement that has been put in place by our government. The Auditor General has raised concern about our department not meeting and matching other jurisdictions. So we are required to do a number of things and that is to ensure that we recoup the costs of this new plate.
In any event, whether we kept the old plate and had a supplier reproduce them, which we could find we would have had to incorporate a new fee. So I think it’s a fair fee. Ten dollars is not a lot for a licence plate that could last up to 12, 13, 14 years and I think we’re getting value for money. Thank you.
Thank you. Very respectfully, but yesterday we heard the Health Minister talk about Ontario and Alberta and whatnot. Today we hear about the Transportation Minister leaning on what New Brunswick and B.C. do. It’s odd how we seem to want to govern by other provinces and what they do, because, I mean, if Quebec decided to drive over the cliff, would our government start lining up behind them?
Excuse me, Mr. Hawkins, could you please ask your supplementary question and keep it short?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue really comes down to this: just because they do it, why does it mean we have to do it? I believe this is a capital cost within our system that rightly belongs on the Department of Transportation’s normal capital budget. Why didn’t the Minister take it from that point of view? Thank you.
Thank you. If Quebec drives over the cliff I would encourage the Member not to follow them. Mr. Speaker, the Member raises examples from other jurisdictions then wants to bow out when I retaliate and show him that he is wrong in his answers. Mr. Speaker, the reality is we’re doing as well or better than other jurisdictions and we should recognize that.
Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last question about the licence plate issue is quite an obvious one, although I would not necessarily encourage significant and prolonged public input when it’s on an unnecessary cause, but in this particular case it’s quite evident that they only asked NWT Tourism and the Legion, outside of a few other professionals. Why didn’t the Minister of Transportation, in some form, even via newspaper ad, radio ad or information on their website, explain to people what their plan is and seek any type of public engagement or input on this particular issue? Does the Minister of Transportation not appreciate the input from the public? Thank you.
Thank you. We did do a consultation process with the public. We were not intending to change the shape of the plate. We were only trying to upgrade the plate first of all because the manufacturer was pulling out and was not going to be able to produce the identical plate anymore. It was an opportunity for us to update our plate because the plate did not meet national standards and didn’t for some time. It would be unfair, it would be very frustrating for the public to go embark on a consultation process where there was really not going to be a lot of changes, except for safety, visibility and size. So would we go out there and pretend that we’re going to change the shape of the plate and all these things that the Member is expecting the public to provide input when we were not going to do that? No, I think we had to meet national standards, we were one of the last jurisdictions, and we’ve done that. We have now a licence plate that is the envy of Canada. We’re hearing it from across the country that this is a plate that’s in high demand and they wish their jurisdictions would do that. I think we should applaud ourselves for the great work that’s been done.
The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
