Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to return to -- I wouldn't want to say my favorite subject, but it's certainly a subject that's important to me -- e-scooters and the regulations thereof. Mr. Speaker, I e-mailed the Minister a couple months ago about an opportunity. It appeared it wasn't the right opportunity to slide it in some miscellaneous changes and as such, my worry is -- I thought we could do a quick fix by saying e-scooters or e-bikes are similar and will be treated similar as bicycles or motorcycles. There was an opportunity there.
Mr. Speaker, Quebec looks like they're banning them. Other jurisdictions are banning or putting regulations -- I should describe it better like that. That said, Mr. Speaker, what can the Minister of Infrastructure say today about regulating the safety and usage of e-scooters, the one you sit down and/or stand up? Thank you.
Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this did certainly come back through my office, and I recall that it was not deemed to be appropriate to put into the miscellaneous statutes bill. Mr. Speaker, there is some work happening on a national scale. So some jurisdictions, larger jurisdictions than ours, are in a better capacity to maybe perhaps do their own thing, but there is also a national level working group that is trying to tackle this issue, and we are relying on them so that as a smaller jurisdiction we can benefit from the work that happens in the larger jurisdictions and not have to necessarily reinvent a proverbial bill. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the answer. Disappointed, but appreciated the answer. Mr. Speaker, there are more regulations on bicycles and pedestrians than there are on these e-scooters, and they contemplate heavily on the concern and safety of both the riders and the public, Mr. Speaker. Is there any way we can bridge some mechanism by defining e-scooters in a manner of saying that they will be treated such as in a similar way as bicycles? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, an e-scooter is not a bicycle and the concern there being that it is much more akin to some other sort of power-assisted type of device and wanting to ensure that we are appropriately defining and in alignment with what's happening in the rest of Canada, what qualifies as a bicycle, what qualifies as an e-mobile device, and what the appropriate types of regulations would be. So there is, as I mentioned before, Mr. Speaker, the Canada Council for Motor Transportation Administrators, is a national body that has a working group on exactly how to figure out what qualifies as what so that we don't overregulate, we don't underregulate, and we are taking into consideration the experience of jurisdictions that have had more experience in this space. So not going to move forward without some background information and have good policy that's based on evidence. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, what can the Minister commit to doing in this upcoming summer season? Now, we're months away but now is the time to contemplate any adjustments and changes, Mr. Speaker. And may I remind the Minister I'm saying treat it as, not defined as, in the sense of I'm not redefining the definition of what an e-scooter is. I'm saying treat it in the same manner based on the principles of safety and concerns. There are no lights on these things, speed regulations, no helmets, etcetera, etcetera, Mr. Speaker. What can the Minister commit that we will have ready so we can implement in the new spring/summer season? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I've said, I will go -- I've been waiting to see what is happening on a national level. I'm happy to go back to that group and receive from them and push them to see what their recommendations are. If it's possible to put those into a regulatory process, that's a little bit faster. If we're talking about a new piece of legislation, that is obviously not typically a lot faster. So let me go and see what they are recommending on a national level so that we can then look to where we could fit that into our process. In the meantime, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Infrastructure certainly can look to what we could do with our own staff in terms of patrolling it and just making sure that we are maintaining safety as best we can on the roadways for which we are responsible. Municipal bylaw, of course, would be responsible within the municipality. Thank you.
