Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure about general identification cards, known as GICs. This issue was brought to my attention by a medical professional who has witnessed many situations in which family members, mostly elders, could not travel with a loved one who had been medevaced because of a lack of appropriate identification. Sometimes that means that people are alone in their last moments or that their loved ones don't get to say good-bye.
I believe that, here in Yellowknife, the RCMP can provide someone with a statutory declaration confirming identity, but that service is unavailable in most communities, and a statutory declaration cannot be used to fly out of the territory anyways.
The GNWT can issue a general ID card to residents without driver's licences and GICs are acceptable for air travel, but that process takes many weeks, as the government does not issue temporary GICs. I could get a temporary driver's licence printed on the spot in Hay River, but not a temporary GIC. A simple solution to this issue, it seems to me, anyways, would be to start printing temporary GICs on the same secure stock that we print temporary driver's licences on. I would like to ask the Minister: can we start doing this and fix this problem right now? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, the short answer is no, because the stock that we do have for using them within our system right now is identified as driver's licence stock, and it cannot be used for that. It would also require significant software changes to be able to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The technology to print hard plastic licences must be cheap enough now that we can have these done in the regional centres. I am sure I could buy one off Amazon and start printing licences in my house if I wanted to. I wouldn't.
If we cannot print the temporary GICs because the paper is driver's licence paper only, are we going to start printing hard plastic permanent driver's licences and GICs in regional centres so that we do not have to wait for weeks while the application is sent to Inuvik, and then the card is shipped back?
To answer the question, first of all, in the 2018-2019 capital plan we have some money that is in there for a two-year project to replace the secure image management system within the Department of Infrastructure. One of these enhancements that we are going to do is to do a temporary GIC card for residents of the Northwest Territories, update the software, have facial recognition capabilities for security issues, and these sorts of things.
The answer is questionable regarding doing it regionally. Once we have this system in place, and we try to work through it in the next two years with this management system, we need to do a cost analysis on doing this, the security measures that need to be taken place -- we cannot be just issuing cards willy-nilly -- as well as inventory control, all these sorts of things. Once this program comes into place after we get the capital through, we will be able to work to fix this problem.
There is a lot of information there. I think I heard that something is rolling out over the next three years where the department will be able to begin printing at least the temporary GICs, and from there, they will see. I just want to confirm: when can we expect temporary GICs to be issued in regional centres?
As I have said, there is money in the capital budget to move forward with this project of the secure image management system, and hopefully, within the next two years, once we have all this stuff worked out; by 2020 at the very latest, we will be able to do that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This has been an ongoing issue. I know the Minister is aware of it because I have brought it up to him. I believe that the Department of Health and Elections Canada have also expressed concerns about the lack of accessible ID in the territory. Is there any collaboration with any other departments or levels of government to get this off the ground? Thank you.
The Department of Education has worked with us, as this was an issue around some of their programming. The Department of Health as well, Elections Canada, there are a number of departments that could possibly use the temporary ID for residents in the Northwest Territories to assist with their programs and stuff moving forward. We've been in collaboration with a number of different departments in moving this forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
