Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hard to follow that. My questions today are going to be for the Minister of the Department of Transportation. Earlier in my Member’s statement I noted that many community teens did not have drivers’ licences and I brought forward an idea that the Department of Transportation should consider a driver education and licensing program in our Northwest Territories schools.
The late Ed Jeske would be really proud today and I’m sure he’s got a smile on his face because he taught many Northerners how to drive. I think some of his students are actually here today. So his concept was very simple and I’m just asking if we looked at modernizing it for a purpose. Let’s get drivers’ licences in the hands of drivers in all of our communities.
So with that, aside from the Graduated Licensing Program, can the Minister tell us what other programs or initiatives does the DOT subscribe to that helps teen drivers with skill improvement, provide experience and teach safe driving? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question. It’s good timing; this is National Teen Driver Safety Week. We’ve also launched Project Gearshift, which is aimed at getting the types of behaviours and schools engaged in learning about safe practices when it comes to driving.
The Member asked what else we’re doing, and I know that in the Northwest Territories in the past when I grew up here in Yellowknife that we did at one time have driver education in the high schools here in Yellowknife. That’s no longer the case, but students in the high schools here in Yellowknife and in Hay River, where we have professional driver education training, can still get high school credit toward their diploma through learning how to drive through a professional driving instructor. We also are working toward having an app made and working with, it’s called The Passing Zone Inc., it’s flashcards, an app that’s going to be available in high schools across the Northwest Territories in the coming year. It’s based on the NWT driving manual and I think that’s going to go a long way, as well, to getting students in high schools across the Northwest Territories more information and the ability to get a driver’s licence. Thank you.
Great, thank you, and I appreciate the Minister’s response. As he mentioned, a new project that we just received here, a new news release from his office, Project Gearshift, we’re looking forward to reading the terms of that and looking forward to that.
Can the Minister of Transportation inform the House what percentage of our teen drivers aged 16 to 20, how many of them have a valid driver’s licence and if there is any regional disparity in that data? Thank you.
I don’t have the parameters that the Member wants, but I’ll give him the stats in the House, the stats that I do have. Yes, there is regional disparity in that. The number of young drivers, youth that have a Class 7, a probationary Class 5, or a Class 5 licence among youth aged 15 to 24 is the parameter that we have, if you look at Yellowknife, Hay River and Fort Smith, 67 percent of youth 15 to 24 have one of those three types of drivers’ licences. If you get outside of those three centres, that number drops to only 33 percent and it is something, through this work that we’re doing with Project Gearshift and other initiatives, that we’re actively trying to target small communities and get programs and services in there that will enable young people in the small communities to get a driver’s licence. Thank you.
The Minister’s statistics are just reaffirming what we’ve seen in visual here as we were doing our community visits here. So can the Minister of DOT describe why do community teen drivers, those areas where we don’t have a current Department of Transportation licensing office, where do they get their Class 5 driver’s licence? What is the process? Thank you.
Thank you. Depending on the location, teen drivers can either drive to a location where testing occurs, or examiners visit communities on a regular basis. In cases where we don’t have examiners in the community, the testing is based on need and the examiners would go into the community based on need. That’s currently how it works in the smaller communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, need was just identified by some of the statistics we heard, only 33 percent of our community teens do have a driver’s licence. So I would be the first to agree that the creation of a DOT drivers’ education and licensing program in schools would open up questions such as liabilities, insurance premiums and overall costs of the program. However, with the GNWT having some of the lowest WSCC rates in the Northwest Territories and leveraging our access to fleet vehicles and insurance, I believe we are in a perfect position to initiate a pilot program.
So would the Department of Transportation Minister be willing to work with the ECE Minister counterpart and consider a pilot project to establish a DOT driver education and licensing program in our schools? Thank you.
Thank you. When it comes to the safety of our teens and youth here in the Northwest Territories, we’re always willing to talk with anyone, and I certainly will have the discussion with the Minister of ECE on this. We have to look at the high rates of preventable collisions, injuries and fatalities amongst our young drivers. For now, our focus is going to be on Project Gearshift and opportunities to get professional driver training into other high schools around the Northwest Territories and to young people who need that necessary training to get their driver’s licence. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
