Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had a couple of questions today for the Minister of Transportation to get to the issue of right hand drive vehicles and their registration here in the Northwest Territories.
I do believe that rules have to be applied equally and fairly across the board when dealing with our residents. In a case that was brought to my attention over the summer, there was a vehicle purchased back in May of this year. It was taken to be registered at Motor Vehicles here in Yellowknife and was denied registration. It still hasn’t been registered to this date.
At that time, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Transportation had said that no other right hand drive vehicles would be registered in the Northwest Territories, but it has come to my attention that the department has registered other right hand drive vehicles subsequent to saying no to this individual.
I would like the Minister to perhaps just give me an explanation of what their policy is when it comes to right hand drive vehicles.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The emerging issue of right hand drive vehicles and the number of them that are coming into our area has been a concern for some time now. Most of these vehicles are coming from Japan.
We have been working toward and looking at developing a policy over the past spring. Earlier this summer we decided that we needed to move forward and put in a policy that requires right hand drive vehicles to be inspected on a 12 step safety and equipment inspection. Prior to that, we did not have a policy that applied to right hand drive vehicles, and there was a vehicle that was refused for registration because they did not have a safety inspection. There was another vehicle that was approved because they were safety inspected in another jurisdiction, and that one went forward and was registered.
The vehicle in question was over 15 years old, and according to national standards, that vehicle would be able to be registered in Canada.
It’s insured. It was able to get insurance. There is a bill of sale. It had all the necessary documentation. I’m just wondering, after this happened, what would allow another right hand drive vehicle to be registered in the Northwest Territories when this one couldn’t.
It’s a relatively simple situation, where one vehicle had a safety inspection and the other one didn’t. We approved the registration of the vehicle that had the safety inspection, and we required the other person who came forward to go through a safety inspection. And we did put the policy together to define what that would mean.
What does the Department of Transportation base its safety inspection on? Is it tagged to another jurisdiction? How does that work? How they did arrive at what vehicle is safe and what vehicle isn’t safe on the road?
First of all, we need to comply with the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. We have also looked at what the other jurisdictions are doing. We have talked to the transport officers in our departments and also talked to those in the public sector who work in the area of safety.
We look at all the vehicles that come from other jurisdictions, including right hand vehicles now, that are required to have compliant parts. A lot of these vehicles are coming because of the ability to sell them fairly cheaply in this country. However, they don’t always have adequate safety parts on them, including proper windshields, bumpers, headlights, reflectors, so those things need to be in place. We’ve put together a policy now that incorporates a testing or compliance part to it, and it seems to be working well.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
I thank the Minister for that. I certainly do understand the aspect of public safety on this. It seems, in terms of dealing with right hand drive vehicles, the department seems to be making things up as they go along. On the Internet, on the website, there are no policies or information posted for residents who are entertaining the idea of purchasing a right hand drive vehicle. Will the Minister make sure the information gets out there for the public so that if they are looking at purchasing a right hand drive vehicle, they know what the rules are, they know what the policies are that are at play here in the Northwest Territories, and it’s not just a case by case basis and policy on the fly?
We certainly will commit to doing that, Mr. Speaker. We’ve nailed down the inspection requirements; we have informed all our staff.
My assumption was that it was also in public information so that people know what the process is. We’ll commit to looking at the Internet and other sources of having that information brought forward.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
