Debates of November 29, 2007 (day 5)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs who well knows that we do not have a 911 service anywhere in the Northwest Territories. The Minister also knows that the chief coroner of the NWT, as early as 2001, has made recommendations that the GNWT should consider implementing a 911 service in our territory. The need is an issue of public safety and access to emergency services. Mr. Speaker, it is well known that a 911 service saves lives and the response time to accidents and tragic events is much shorter where a 911 service exists.

In May of 2007, the NWT Association of Communities passed a resolution at their annual general meeting that the GNWT formulate an implementation plan to provide 911 dispatch service to all households in the NWT. The Minister is aware that the City of Yellowknife has been working to get a 911 service off the ground for many years now, but it is hampered by a lack of GNWT support. Just this week, Mr. Speaker, the deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs made the following statements, and I quote, "The government is preparing to undertake some research. There has been a lot of interest from the coroner’s office, obviously from the City of Yellowknife and most recently through a resolution from the NWT Association of Communities in saying discussions on how we might get some kind of emergency services advanced." My question to the Minister is this: What research is the department about to undertake and when will it get started?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Return To Question 71-16(1): Implementation Of A 911 Service

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of things we would have to look at in order to start putting the plan on how to deliver 911 services to the Northwest Territories and also to even deliver it to one of the communities is probably closer to being ready than the rest, and that is the city of Yellowknife. Of course, that is looking at the technical challenges that are in front of us. NorthwesTel has been communicating with us. We can’t identify a system right now to support delivery to all of the communities. There are also a number of logistical challenges that we need to identify how we would deal with the system in our communities where they don’t have street addresses, and, of course, the biggest factor and the biggest challenge of all is the cost. We have agreed to work with the City of Yellowknife. We have put together a stakeholder committee. We are part of it. We will be working along with them to look at the different options and a plan to deliver 911 to the city of Yellowknife. We will continue to work on what it would take to apply that to the rest of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Supplementary To Question 71-16(1): Implementation Of A 911 Service

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to hear the Minister say that they are ready to support the City of Yellowknife to get 911 implemented, if that is what I heard. I think that is wonderful. The Minister spoke also about the absence of infrastructure in all the communities in the NWT. That is absolutely accurate. Most of our communities can’t handle 911 service at this point in time due to technical problems with their telephone service, but I know there is at least one community that is ready for 911. In the absence of necessary infrastructure in every community, will the Minister commit to providing support to the implementation of 911 in at least the one community or more who are ready for the implementation of 911? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 71-16(1): Implementation Of A 911 Service

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we have already indicated to the city that we would be glad to work with them. We would be very happy to explore the different options that are available to us. Of course, we have to look at what type of system we are talking about. Are we talking about a basic 911 system that is available in the Yukon? Are we looking at a complete system like the southern cities have? All those things, of course, have different costs or price tags that come with it. We have to do a lot of work in this area. We have committed to work with the city on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member a short supplementary. Ms. Bisaro.

Supplementary To Question 71-16(1): Implementation Of A 911 Service

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to have the Minister clarify for me, then, what kind of support he is referencing. Is it simply human resource support or is it actual dollars and financial resources? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 71-16(1): Implementation Of A 911 Service

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have committed at the stakeholder committee that we will work with them. We have not committed to supply any dollars. We are certainly willing to undertake some of the research. We will be willing to supply some of our staff to make some time to it. Until we know what the options are, it is very difficult to be able to agree at this point, as the Member is asking, to invest and pay for some of this service. Four hundred thousand dollars that the city has identified came out of the community capacity fund. We would like to be able to expand on what they are trying to do and hopefully work together and possibly learn from what has been happening in terms of research and some discussion. Thank you.